


Changing Form

by JarvisUandDUMEtoo



Category: Iron Man (Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - No Powers, Alternate Universe - Supernatural Elements, Angst with a Happy Ending, Breaking Up & Making Up, Carnival, Flashbacks, Friends to Lovers, Happy Ending, Hunters & Hunting, James "Rhodey" Rhodes Needs a Hug, James "Rhodey" Rhodes-centric, M/M, MIT Era, Mystery, POV James "Rhodey" Rhodes, Paranoia, References to Supernatural (TV), Roommates, Tony Stark Has A Heart, Violence, Werewolves
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-07
Updated: 2019-10-02
Packaged: 2020-10-12 00:14:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 14
Words: 30,301
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20555024
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JarvisUandDUMEtoo/pseuds/JarvisUandDUMEtoo
Summary: Rhodey is traveling around the country with his sister hunting monsters and looking for their missing father. When a feral werewolf leads them to Malibu, Rhodey sees Tony for the first time since graduating from MIT and old feelings rise to the surface along with several secrets.





	1. A New Case

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> -This story is completely written and I will be posting a chapter every few days as I finish up editing.  
-This started out as a supernatural AU and the only thing I ended up keeping was the general premise of a family driving around to hunt monsters. You do not need to have seen the show to understand the story.  
-Rhodey refers to himself as James in this story. Personally I have different nicknames between friends and family, and I refer to myself by my full name, so that’s what I did for him. His sister Jeanette refers to him as Jimmy and Tony calls him Rhodey.  
-Speaking of Jeanette, you do not need any background to understand her character. All you need to know is that she’s Rhodey’s sister and is one year younger.

### 

Jeanette spun her laptop around on the table and James looked up from his book.  
“I found us a new case.”  
James got up and walked behind her to peer at the laptop. It had been over a week since their last investigation into the supernatural, a supposed chupacabra that had ended up being a feral dog. They had still spent a week making sure. Since most of the world didn’t know about the existence of supernatural creatures, let alone how to kill them, it was important that they do a thorough job to make sure they weren’t leaving a town defenseless. 

James was itching for something to do and this case looked promising. Four people had been killed by wild animals in less than a week, and both the police and animal control were stumped. The bodies had large claw marks, maybe a real chupacabra this time, or more likely it was werewolves. He hoped it was a chupacabra, after the last few years he wouldn’t be able to shoot a wolf and that was going to raise questions with Jeanette. Either way it was worth investigating. He started to pack up his stuff, folding his clothes neatly and packing it into his bags.  
“Where’s it at?”  
Jeanette squinted at the screen. “Malibu, California. Should be about a four hour drive from here.”  
Closer to five hours if James drove, because he drove like a normal person who had a healthy respect for the rules of the road. Four hours if Jeanette drove, and she always drove. She loved cars and the silver beast she drove was her pride and joy. 

Rhodey looked at the map. He recognized the shape of the coast, and his heart picked up. “Malibu? Hey, that’s great. Sunshine, the beach.” He tried to speak casually. “And I have a contact there.”  
Jeanette gave him a look over her shoulder and pushed out her chair. “You have a contact? How? I’m the one who has stayed in the game, and you’re the one who ran off to MIT for the last six years. There’s no way you know a hunter that I don’t, and no self respecting hunter would live in Malibu of all places.”  
Jim finished packing up his bag and slung it over his shoulder. “Oh, so ghosts can’t haunt where it’s sunny anymore? Besides, he’s not a hunter. You remember my roommate, Tony?”  
Jeanette collapsed dramatically on the bed. “Tony. How could I forget Tony? Never met him but you talk about him so much I’m pretty sure I could win a Tony based trivia contest. Tony this, Tony that, Tony, Tony, Tony!”  
James glared at her. He didn’t talk about Tony that much. “Are you jealous that I have someone outside our family? It’s ok, just admit that you’re emotionally stunted.”  
She rolled her eyes at him and went outside to dump her bag and the trunk of their car. He was joking, but not completely. Their mom had fallen victim to a supernatural creature when James was four and their Dad had swore the rest of his life to vengeance. 

The way their dad had raised them, moving across the US every two weeks to find a new case, telling them that anyone could secretly be a monster and all friends were temporary, had bred a sort of blind loyalty into Jeanette that sometimes scared James. For her, nothing existed outside their family and small group of fellow hunters. The rest of the world was broken up into civilians to be protected and monsters to be killed. With so little of the population believing in the supernatural, and the people who did believe being more crazy and dangerous than some of the monsters they fought, there was no one who could truly understand them. Or at least that was what James thought until he went to MIT. There he made friends for the first time in his life, and he got to know Tony. He got to feel what it was like to look forward to something beyond the next kill. He would have stayed out of the game forever if Jeanette hadn’t come back asking for his help. Their father had gone missing, and despite her hardass exterior he could tell she was scared. Those who hunted monsters often got hunted in return. They had been searching for months, and the clues had tapered out. Now they were wandering aimlessly, taking care of hunts as they came up while waiting for any information on their father to surface. This case was the latest in a long line of distractions. Jim dumped his stuff in the car and got in the passenger's seat. Jeanette pulled the car out of the lot and started heading west. 

“Tony lives in Malibu and I’m sure he’d let us stay with him, it’ll be a nice break from motels.”  
Even the beds in the dorms at MIT were better than motel beds. And knowing Tony, the beds at his place were going to be over the top, because everything Tony did was over the top. The words ‘like a cloud’ popped into his head, a fragment from a long ago conversation.  
“I’m sure he’s nice and all, but I don’t feel comfortable bringing a civilian into this. Whatever is killing those people could track us back to his place, and then what? You want to risk your friend’s life so we can sleep on his pull out sofa instead of at a motel?”  
Jim looked out the window at the road. This was going to be a difficult conversation and it wasn't going to go well no matter how he phrased it. “There’s two things I never told you about Tony. One, he’s rich. Really rich. Multiple mansions rich. And two….”  
She glanced at him out of the corner of her eye. “Two?”  
He shook his head. Maybe she would meet Tony and not notice. They could solve the whole case and she would never figure it out. Or she would figure it out when he wasn’t there and everything would go downhill very, very quickly.  
“Maybe you should pull over.”  
“Ooooh, does your precious Tony have a darkside? You said he was rich? Did he murder someone for the inheritnace? Did he commit a crime and use his money to cover it up?”  
“He’s a werewolf.”  
Jeanette jerked to look at him so hard the car almost swerved into a ditch. “He’s a _what!”_  
“Jesus, Jeanette! Eyes on the road!”  
She slammed on the brakes and guided the car over to the side of the road. She threw up her arms. “A werewolf!”  
“He’s a great guy! He likes TV shows about space and builds robots that act like puppies and he cried when we watched Marley and Me!”  
She waved her arms back and forth frantically. “And he’s a werewolf! How has this never come up in any of your ten million Tony stories? Jimmy, he’s a monster.”  
James forced her arms down and glared at her until he saw her shoulders start to settle. “Who would always scope out targets for your bar scams?”  
She scowled. “You. Why-”  
“And who always knew who to talk to to get you out of detention early?”  
“You.”  
“And who is in charge of interviewing witnesses and dealing with the local cops?”  
“You.”  
“That’s right. Because I can read people, and everything in me says that Tony’s not a threat. I slept in the same room with him for six years, if he wanted to eat me he had plenty of chances.”  
“So what, you looked at him and decided that he wasn’t dangerous, screw the past two decades of hunting monsters like him?”  
James felt his grip on her wrist tightening and forced himself to let go before he hurt her. He placed his hands in his lap and took a deep breath. “Tony isn’t a monster. And you’re going to be nice to him.” 

Jeanette started the car back up and guided them back on the road with a white knuckled grip. “Oh I’m going to be nice. I’m going to be nice right up until he turns on us, because he is a monster, and that is what monsters do. Then I’m going to shoot him in the goddamn face.”  
James didn’t rise to the bait, and the rest of the ride was spent in chilly silence.


	2. Investigating the Scene

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> James and Jeanette have made it to Malibu and it's time to meet Tony. Tony has some things to say, and they need to start trying to find clues to solve the case of the feral wolf.

# 

They arrived at Tony’s house at Point Dume, Malibu, at two o’clock. The gate swung open as they approached and Jeanette pulled to a stop in the driveway near the front door. They both got out and James hit the doorbell as Jeanette pretended to grab their bags. Knowing Jeanette she was probably much more concerned about grabbing the guns inside.  
James clenched and unclenched his fists. Of course this was how he got to see Tony again after nearly a year and a half... with his sister ten feet away and pointing a gun at them.  
The door swung open, and there was Tony.  
“Rhodey!!!”  
“Tones!”  
Tony hugged him and James would have sworn he heard a gun cock. As nothing happened, he relaxed and let himself enjoy the hug. Tony’s wolf blood meant he always ran hot, so he was warm as he wrapped his arms around Jame’s middle. He noted that Tony had gotten taller, they used to be the same height. Some time over the last year and a half Tony had managed one last inch, the bastard. James was going to kill him if he mentioned it.  
“You got short, Platypus.”  
Goddamn it. “Or maybe you’re wearing heels. Did you dress up special for me?”  
Tony started stammering and James realized that he had dressed up. This was probably the cleanest he had ever seen Tony, with none of his customary oil stains or grease marks, and his hair smelled like mouse. He looked good. Tony always looked good. He held the side of Tony’s face and Tony leaned into the touch. “You look real nice.”  
“Yeah?” Tony asked.  
James swore that complementing this guy was like watering a cactus. Tony said he didn’t need anything from anybody and most of the time he didn’t...he was a survivor above all else. But without water he never blossomed, and all others saw was his prickly exterior. He wanted to shower Tony with compliments until he drowned, until the whole world could see the vibrancy that Tony was hiding away alone in the sands of Malibu. 

Jeanette broke the moment. “You two done hugging or what?”  
Tony startled away and cleared his throat, smoothing down his shirt with nervous hands. He stepped closer and held one out to shake. “Tony Stark. You must be Jeanette? Rhodey has told me so much about you.”  
Jeanette ignored his hand and looked over his shoulder. “I don’t shake hands with monsters.”  
Tony glared at her. “And I don’t shake hands with people who think I’m a monster, so I guess it’s for the best.”  
James was going to kill her. No, he would do something worse. He walked around both of them and sat casually on the car. Jeanette squinted at him. “What are you doing?”  
“Nothing.” And that’s what it looked like, from where Tony was standing. Only Jeanette could see the knife resting gently atop her car’s fresh coat of silver paint.  
“No. You wouldn’t.”  
He pressed the knife in, and a small silver flake chipped off. Jeanette lunged forward at Tony, with her hand out. “I’m Jeanette! I was joking, it’s great to meet you, let’s go inside, it’s so hot out, I’m dying.” She shook Tony’s hand and brushed past him to go inside.  
Tony gave him a look. “Your sister is weird.”  
James shrugged. “Weird family. You should meet my dad. No, scratch that. You should never meet my dad.”  
He would shoot you on sight, James thought to himself. Jeanette had learned how to act from him and it was twice as bad straight from the source. 

Tony led them inside, where Jeanette had already made herself at home at the kitchen table and was typing away at her laptop.  
“So you found your dad, right? That’s why you’re here?” Tony asked eagerly.  
James almost tripped. He had been so excited to take the excuse to see Tony that he had forgotten why he hadn’t visited Tony up until now. Their deal.  
“We’re still looking,” he said, an evasion that he knew Tony wasn’t going to accept. Tony’s eyes narrowed.  
“You think that your dad is here? I would know if your dad had shown up and he hasn’t. The packs around here pay pretty close attention to the arrival of hunters, as you can imagine. Steve sent me a heads up on you guys the second you crossed the border into California.”  
“We’re investigating a string of werewolf killings along the coast.” Jeanette answered for him. “You have any info on that?” Though she asked it neutrally the underlying implication was that Tony was complicit in all werewolf related activity.  
Tony shook his head. “No. I’ll call Steve. He’s the alpha of the pack down here, and he’d be the one to take care of an intruder in our territory. Werewolves don’t like someone going feral any more than humans do. Help yourself to any food or drinks.” He stepped into the hallway, and dragged James with him. He poked his chest. “Why are you really here?”  
“Jeanette wasn’t lying, there really have been killings along the coast.”  
“I watch the news, I know about the killings. Steve is going to take care of it in his annoyingly organized way like he always does. I thought you were supposed to be searching for your father.”  
James scrubbed a hand up and down his face. “The clues ran out months ago. Since then we’ve been wandering around, taking care of whatever stuff Jeanette can dig up.”  
Tony took his hand. “Rhodey, you know what this means…”  
“I know.” He said aggressively. “I know, ok?” He said again, quieter. “Dad goes out on a case, never comes home. I’ve been waiting to hear it my whole goddamn life. He was a hunter, and there’s only one end for hunters.”  
Tony’s thumb moved slowly up and down across James’ hand. “You know what a wise man once told me? That there’s only one way to win a rigged game. Refuse to play.”  
James pulled his hand away. “The work never ends and I can’t leave Jeanette. You don’t understand what Dad did to her. The training, the rules, the discipline...this is all she is, this is all she has. She can’t quit, and I can’t leave her. A lone hunter is like a beacon for monsters and she won’t trust anyone who isn’t family.”  
“So our plans, our deal…”  
“I’m sorry. She’s family. And family always comes first.”  
Tony closed his eyes. “Right. Of course. I’ll go call Steve.”  
Oh God, what was he doing?  
Being away for so long had made his memories fade, like the color leaching out of an old photo. Tony became Tony, became tony, became his old college roommate. A part of his past he left behind as a noble sacrifice to the greater good, one of hundreds on the bloody altar of the Rhodes name. The Rhodes were the heroes of the story, saving the innocent and slaying the beasts. But Tony wasn’t a footnote to James’ story, he was a real person and this was hurting him.  
“Tones-”  
“It’s fine.”  
It wasn’t fine, he could already see Tony closing himself off, the brightness dimming from his eyes as one more relationship pittered out into a string of empty promises.  
“I want to stay, I know we made a deal that we could live here together-”  
“I said it’s fine. I’ve got the connections, I’ll call Steve, we’ll figure your wolf problem out.”  
That was what Tony always went back to; being useful. He had once told James that it didn’t matter that no one liked him; they couldn’t get rid of him as long as he was providing something they needed. James stepped in front of Tony before he could slink away.  
“You are more than you think you are. You just don’t see it.”  
Tony kept his eyes cast downwards. “Sure. But I’m not good enough to keep you. Deal’s over, go back to your sister.” 

Tony brushed past him and down the hall. James didn’t go after him. He could say what he wanted, but in a week, maybe two, he would be leaving. All the pretty words in the world wouldn’t change that.  
He went back to the kitchen and dropped into a chair beside Jeanette. She was checking her phone. She checked it every half hour, in case Dad called and she missed it. Judging by her face, there was nothing to miss.  
Tony and Jeanette, ever patient, ever loyal. Two sides of the same coin, monster and hunter. Lost souls who had spent the past year and a half waiting by the phone for a call that never came.  
Jeanette went back to typing on her laptop, oblivious to his thoughts. “I checked the fridge. No human remains.”  
James rested his head on the table. “Tony doesn’t eat people.”  
“We’ll see.”  
James closed his eyes. A few minutes later Tony came back in. “Steve says there’s been another kill, and he’s at the scene now. He invited you to come check it out.”  
“Another kill? That’s an escalation of the timeline. You got anywhere to change?” Jeanette asked Tony.  
“Change? You’re a-”  
Jeanette cut him off. “Human. I’d shoot myself in the head before I’d be a were. Change clothes.”  
Tony scowled. “Right. I’ll show you to your rooms.” He lead them down the hallway and pointed to the doors across from each other at the end. “Guest rooms. Help yourself, I put fresh sheets on when I got your call. I’ll meet you in the garage when you’re done.” 

Jeanette pushed the first door open cautiously, ready for an attack. James ignored her and went into the other room and dumped his stuff on the bed. He did a quick check for the space more out of habit than anything. This was Tony’s house, no need to worry about threats. He knew in his bones that any place where Tony was would be safe. He pulled on a suit and stood in front of the mirror to do his tie. It was easier to talk your way into a crime scene when you looked like a fed and had a fake badge to match. James hated lying, but it was easier than trying to explain the existence of the supernatural to every cop they ran into, and James was all about picking the most practical solution. They walked back down the hall.  
“Which is the garage?”  
Jeanette shrugged and started pushing doors open at random. There was a reinforced silver door that was locked.  
“Probably his murder dungeon.”  
James rolled his eyes. “It’s his lab.” 

She pushed open another door. It was Tony’s bedroom. James caught a glimpse of light blue walls and a model plane hanging from the ceiling. James had built that plane, back at MIT. Tony had been relegated to holding the instructions because he couldn’t follow the rules for a damn and just once James wanted it to turn out like the picture. Not hot rod red, not more aerodynamic, not with an extra set of propellers. It was a testiment to how much Tony liked him that he allowed inferior engineering to take place on their stupid little model plane. They had hung it on the ceiling of their kitchen, and it stayed there for two years before being carefully boxed up and shipped out to Malibu to fly again against a backdrop of light blue walls. Jeanette shut the door and moved on, and James paused to rest a calloused palm against the door. What else had Tony kept?  
Jeanette poked him. “I found the garage.”  
James pulled himself away without snooping further. They met Tony at the end of a long line of fancy sports cars. James knew Jeanette had to be drooling over them, she had been into cars for as long as he could remember.  
Tony gestured at them to get in and Jeanette shook her head.  
“I’m driving myself.”  
“You don’t know where it is.”  
“I’ve got GPS. Why don’t you let me drive you?”  
“I always drive myself.” Tony insisted. 

They ended up arriving to the scene in two cars. Why did James likes these two again? Two men stood next to a line of cones and crime scene tape, one with long brown hair and the other with short cropped blond. The blond man stepped forward to shake their hands. “Captain Steve Rogers, pleasure to meet you. This is Lieutenant Barnes.”  
“Joan Jett, FBI.”  
If this was Tony’s werewolf friend Steve then there was no point in lying. “James Rhodes, I’m Tony’s …..friend.” He stuck with ‘friend’ since their deal was off, and he supposed that ‘friends’ was actually the most accurate word for what he and Tony were. Roommates? They were staying in Tony’s house, and that’s how they had first met. Jeanette kicked him. “Jimmy! We’re undercover!”  
The Captain scowled at them. “I knew who you two were the second you crossed the border into my territory. You’re here because Tony asked for a favor, so do what you need to do and try not to muck up my investigation.”  
Tony clapped him on the back. “I appreciate it, Steve.”  
Tony and Jeanette went forward to inspect the body and James held back. “What sort of favor does he owe you now?”  
“Oh, you’ve been here a day and you’re trying to butt into Tony’s affairs?”  
James didn’t back down and the Captain smiled. “It’s good to know Tony’s got a couple good friends from the old days. It’s rare for a wolf to switch packs, and I was worried about what kind of life he was living to make him travel across the whole country to get away. Howard is an old friend of mine so when Tony asked to live in my territory I didn’t refuse him, and he’s been no trouble. He can fix things like no one I’ve ever seen, so my favor will be a tune up on my bike. Or maybe Clint broke his bow again. Something is always breaking, dealing with this bunch.”  
James nodded. “Just checking.”  
“No offense was taken. Now let me give you the rundown.” 

They approached the body and Steve pointed out a paw print. “This is the best physical evidence we have. I also got a scent from the killer off the body so I’m going to spend the rest of the day driving around town to see if I can catch it again. The body was discovered this morning by a group of surfers, and it’s following the same pattern of working up the coast. Bite marks indicated a werewolf attack, though I’ll put it in the books as wild dogs.”  
“It’s useful having an in on the cops, huh?” Tony said. “Now I need Steve to clear my parking tickets.”  
“That money goes towards repaving the roads. If you don’t want tickets then you need to learn to quit speeding.” Steve said with a sigh. Tony stuck his tongue out at him.  
“Mr. Rules and Regulations, you’re no fun.”  
Steve ignored him, clearly used to Tony’s shenanigans. Bored with the conversation, Tony wandered off to skip rocks into the waves.  
“Anything else you need to see?” Steve asked.  
Jeanette shook her head. “We’ll investigate, and once we find them we’ll take care of the problem and be out of your hair by the end of the week.”  
“Take care of the problem?” Steve asked coldly.  
“You need a lesson on how guns work, Captain?”  
“I think you misunderstood my invitation. You were allowed to see the scene and make sure your father isn’t involved in the case in any way, but my pack is going to be finding and rehabilitating the wolf. There will be no killing.”  
“Rehabilitating? They’ve killed five people and show no signs of stopping. There’s no coming back from something like that.”  
The lieutenant with the long brown hair spoke for the first time. “You would be surprised what you can come back from, if you have the right support.”  
Steve put and hand on his shoulder and the man gave him a small smile.  
"Our pack always tries to rehabilitate any wolves that go feral,” Steve explained patiently. “Most of the time it’s someone who was forcefully turned who went feral, or an escapee from one of the experimental labs that the government refuses to acknowledge exist. Either way, going feral is something that isn’t their fault and can be cured. They deserve a second chance. Go explore Malibu with Tony, and leave the hunt to us.”  
James jumped in before Jeanette could object. “Sounds good, thank you for your time.” He yelled down the beach. “Tony, you want to take us somewhere for dinner?”  
Tony came trotting up the sandy hill. “Oh yes! I’ve been dying to show you this place since it opened, it’s got the best hot sake! Follow my car, it’s about a twenty minute drive.”  
“Have fun. Tony, I will throw you in the drunk tank if you get rowdy, don’t test me.”  
Tony blew him an exaggerated kiss. “Love you too Steve! Let’s go guys!” 

Tony got into his car ahead, and James slid into the seat beside Jeanette. She spoke as soon as the doors shut.  
“I’m not abandoning the hunt.”  
“I know. And it’s going to be a hundred times easier to keep hunting now that the wolves think we’ve dropped it and aren’t going to be watching us.”  
“Oh.”  
“I swear to god Jean, if it were up to you you’d make everything a hundred times harder than it needs to be. Now follow Tony’s car so we can eat overpriced sushi and get drunk.” She couldn’t argue with that.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It turns out that ‘Captain’ is an actual police rank, so that worked out great for Steve. He was also a Captain in the army where he fought with Bucky before he came to Malibu.  
I also managed to work my favorite Rhodey quote into this chapter:  
“You are more than you think you are. You just don’t see it.”  
He says it to Tony in Iron Man when they’re on the plane.


	3. The Empty Beach

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After investigating the scene they get dinner and Rhodey reminisces on the past.

# 

They made it to the restaurant and inside with no trouble. Their suits ended up being useful after all, since they all fit the dress code. It was some ritzy place like most the spots seemed to be in Malibu, and James was glad when Tony insisted on treating them because there was no way they’d be able to pay for this with their wads of cash picked up through bar scams and small credit card frauds. Hunting ghosts and werewolves didn’t lead to a steady income. The food was great, the music was nice, and they even had the windows open to a cool breeze and a beautiful view of the ocean.  


Tony noticed him looking out the window after dinner. “You want to take a walk?”  
“Yes, let’s go,” Jeanette said for him. Nice places made her uneasy and she’d been itching to leave since they got there. James nodded and got up, stumbling a little as he tried to push in his chair. Maybe he had hit the sake a little hard. He forgot how much he tended to let himself loose when he was around Tony. He had to stay in control when he was with Jeanette, if he stopped being responsible for a second around her then things were going to go to hell in a handbasket. It was his job as the oldest to watch out for her. Things were different with Tony. Tony had been taking care of himself since his parents shipped him off to boarding school at the age of six and James had never seen him get himself into trouble that he couldn’t get out of. He was sure you could drop him in the middle of the desert with no map or supplies and he would be back scratching at the front door a week later. Maybe he couldn’t cook anything more complicated than ramen and thought coffee was a major food group, but he always found a way to keep himself fed and kept his space unnaturally clean for a man in his twenties. Obsessive cleaning and bed making must have been a left over boarding school tick, James reasoned. And back at MIT when James made Tony simple things like pancakes or eggs he was always over the moon. Tony especially liked the cinnamon rolls that came in the cans. He’d pop the seal and jump at the little hiss of air every time. James would bake them because Tony burned everything he touched, and their little off campus apartment would smell like warm cinnamon for the rest of the day. They would sit on the couch and watch Sunday cartoons and it was nice.  
Nice was such a small stupid word and maybe what they were doing was stupid too but it was nice.  


Neither of them had ever gotten that before meeting each other. They’d gotten rules, discipline, and the skills to hunt and kill from their fathers. They taught each other about friendship and cinnamon rolls and lazy Sunday mornings where everything was soft and sweet. They didn’t need each other but they had each other anyway and somehow that made it better.  
They lived together for almost six years, put together in a dorm freshman year by random chance, S following R in the alphabet and Tony following James to their first class. Most of those years were spent hunched over together at their beaten up table, comparing answers and fighting over differential equations. They walked each other to class, went out to dinner, offered the other the last egg roll, set the kitchen on fire (twice), and built a robot to put the fires out. James would make Tony tea and force him to bed when he tried to pull multiple all nighters and when James was stressed Tony would cover him in blankets and work through each problem with him and let him bury his face in his warm soft fur. It was nice, nice, nice. An ocean of nice where before he had been parched and fighting for every tiny drop.  


Tony kissed him in their third year and all James could say was “Oh,”  
James had never thought that he would fall in love. He watched his father drive himself mad trying to avenge the death of his mother and it scared him. All James remembered of his childhood was the road, where a single mistake could get you killed and there were never any resources to spare. James was practical above all else, and logic didn’t leave much room for love.  
Tony claimed to be logical, then bled messy feelings all over everything he did. He named his computer AI Jarvis and tried to make up an acronym for it, as if James couldn’t see the neat signature of the same name inside a birthday card on his desk. He had a shoebox under his bed full of ticket stubs and notes James had written that he politely pretended not to see. The blanket over the back of their couch had the occasional uneven stitch that said someone had spent a very long time making it by hand, and Tony had just about cried when a guest had complained that it was scratchy.  
Tony felt things so deeply. When he was sad he drowned and when he was happy he soared and James wondered what it would be like to lose yourself so entirely in a moment. Three years in Tony kissed him with butterflies in his stomach and stars in his eyes. Then James thought it through step by step, taking into account other relationships he had seen on TV and in real life, the pros and the cons, and decided that there was a statistically significant chance that what they had was love. 

Walking on the beach in the moonlight, both of them slightly drunk, reminded him of their first date. Tony had known about his weakness for hot sake for years and took advantage of it shamelessly to get him to loosen up out of his military like stiffness. James knew exactly what he was doing and indulged him every time.  
Last time they had driven down to the coats and sat on a blanket and watched the waves. It had been another small memory of something nice that James had greedily added to his growing collection. This time was significantly less pleasant because Jeanette was yelling at them whenever she found something that might be a wolf print and they didn’t have a blanket so he was getting sand in his pants and Tony was mad at him which always made everything bad feel worse.  
Tony gave him a look. “Does she really think she’s going to find the wolf this way? By yelling at the beach?”  
“She’s drunk, let her walk it off.”  
“Hmph.” Tony laid back in the sand, careless for the state of his clothes. “You recognize any stars, out here on the other side of the country?”  
James didn’t bother to look. “I can navigate from any point in the continental US, Dad made sure of that.”  
Tony sighed and closed his eyes. “Right.”  
“What are you doing, Tones? This isn’t a date.”  
“I know.”  
“And pretending it is-”  
“I know.”  
They sat in silence, and the waves rolled in and out with smooth regularity as Jeanette shouted over and over that there was nothing there.


	4. Monsters and Misconceptions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Steve calls in his favor and they go to the compound to talk fix his bike.

### 

James hadn’t figured out that Tony was a wolf until they had been living together for almost a month. The problem was that Tony didn’t act like any wolf James had met (and killed) before. His father had taught him several signs to identify a werewolf. One, yellow eyes. Two, sharp nails. Three, growling and trying to eat people.  
Tony didn’t have any of that. He was like a normal person. If anything James would have guessed vampire, since he was always up late and pasty white. 

James came back to the freshman dorms one night on the full moon and there was a large brown dog curled up on their sofa. He shooed it outside, and then the next morning he let a very irritated and naked Tony back inside. That was how Tony came out to him as a werewolf. James had spent an uncomfortably long time staring at a naked Tony and that was how he came out to Tony as gay. (Tony was 18 and ate like a garbage disposal at a Burger King, how the hell did he look that good?)  
Because they had been living together for a month James had already gotten attached to Tony, much more attached than he’d ever been to someone outside his family before. The thought of hurting Tony made him want to throw up. He decided that he would let Tony live and see where things went. After a month Tony had had plenty of chances to kill him in his sleep and he hadn’t, and it wasn’t like he was hurting anyone else, and James was tired of hunting.  
He paid close attention to Tony for the next few weeks. He had never heard of a werewolf that lived a normal life with the rest of humanity. How many creatures were out there that his family had walked right past because they weren't on a killing spree? Were most monsters normal people, and it was a few bad apples coloring his whole world view?  
He watched Tony cry for an hour straight after watching Marley and Me. Yes, it was time to rethink some things. 

James hadn’t planned on telling Tony that he was a hunter at all. Unlike being a wolf, being a hunter left no physical signs so he could theoretically keep it a secret forever. They lived together for two years, one in the dorms and one in an apartment, before Tony riffled through his desk to try to find some spare batteries and found his real drivers license, with the name James Rhodes. All Tony had ever known him by up to that point was Jonathan Roads, a fake name with much less baggage and no outstanding warrants for his arrest. One thing led to another, and most of the story came out. James told him about some of the monsters he hunted, careful to leave out any mentions of werewolves. Even while sticking to the tamest stories and the most clearly evil monsters, they had fought bitterly over his kill count, and Tony had almost moved out.  
Tony might have been a werewolf but he had never killed a human. Killing anything made him deeply upset, and he tried to go vegetarian several times before his wolf side forced him back to a meat based diet.  
Though he didn’t tell Tony, James had killed wolves, and he had been proud of it at the time. If he had met Tony a few years earlier, he would have killed him too. That thought felt like a lead brick in his stomach.  
James used his record of two years without hunting and his very best cinnamon oatmeal cookie recipe to convince Tony to stay. Things had still felt frigid between them for weeks.  


  
That’s what it felt like again now that he was back after all the time away. Tony was not happy with him or his sister. Steve had called in his favor the next day, and James and Jeanette tagged along mostly because Jeanette wanted to investigate the wolf den. It ended up being a large white building on a large plot of land. It had the weird architecture that all the buildings in Malibu seemed to have, along with a ridiculously long driveway. When they finally pulled up to the compound the long haired lieutenant from the previous day greeted them.  
“Steve had to take care of a few things down at the station, so you’re stuck with me.”  
“No one could be stuck with you, Buckaroo. We’ll take you over boring old Steve any day.”  
“It’s funny to me that you think he’s boring when he gives me about ten heart attacks a day.” He turned to the hunters. “I don’t know if I had a chance to introduce myself yesterday. I’m James Barnes. Everyone calls me Bucky.”  
Another James. He wondered how he got from James to Bucky.  
“Pleasure to meet you,” James replied, glad that there was no offer to shake hands. He didn’t know what he would do this time to get Jeanette to behave. Maybe the guy had issues with germs, he was wearing leather gloves on both hands. He led them down a series of hallways to a garage. The building was huge, it could house up to 30 people comfortably. James wondered about the size of the pack. It was usually only the lone wolves who caused enough of a ruckus to attract the attention of hunters. Packs took care of their own, and even veteran hunters couldn’t tell you much about pack sizes and structure. This was a valuable opportunity and a huge show of trust. Whenever James had asked questions about Tony’s old pack he had been evasive. He knew about Howard and Maria, and another unrelated pair named Edwin and Ana Jarvis that seemed to act like an extended family. Beyond that it was a mystery. Pack was a sensitive subject for Tony. 

When they reached the garage Tony made a beeline for a vintage bike and started cooing at it.  
“Tell me what troubles you, my darling.”  
“Steve ramped it off the top of a car and slid it under a truck and now he says it’s got a rattle to it.”  
They all stared at him.  
“Steve?” Tony asked incredulously. “Steve, who gave me a ticket for going 35 in a 30 zone? There’s no way.”  
Bucky shrugged. “Believe what you will.”  
Tony shook his head and knelt down next to the bike. He pulled off the metal side that was dented and scratched and started poking at the engine. Jeanette scowled.  
“What the hell did he do to it? God, he doesn’t deserve a bike as nice as this if he’s going to treat it like crap. Looks like he doesn’t even change the oil by the way it’s all gummed up. And the front piston!”  
“Finally, someone else who has some sense.” Tony said with a grin. He passed her the metal covering and she went over to the work bench to search for a hammer to bang the dents out, muttering about unappreciative riders the whole way. James settled into a chair next to Bucky who was watching Tony work.  
“He’s got a skill for fixing,” James said quietly.  
Bucky nodded. “Sure does. He’s worked on my arm a few times.” He pulled off his glove to reveal a metal hand. Tiny servos whirred as he flexed his fingers. “I’m considering having him rebuild the whole thing.”  
“I could make it twice as light and make it shoot lasers from the palm. Wouldn’t that be cool?” Tony said, as he walked out of the garage and to the kitchen to get a towel for the grease.  
“I’d settle for lighter, it’s a bear on my shoulder.” Bucky responded ruefully, rotating his arm a few times.  
“How’d you lose it?” Jeanette asked with her usual lack of tact. Bucky didn’t seem to mind.  
“You know Tony was born and bred, right? Werewolf from a long line of werewolves, like a pedigree dog. Steve and I are mongrels. Steve was turned for some sort of top secret military force, they thought maybe wolves could be a tactical advantage. The problem was that they picked the best of the best, and when you put thirty highly competitive men who are used to being in charge in a room together, they all want to be top dog. The wolves ended up being too hard to control so Steve and the others were released back into civilian life.  
“I was turned in a lab up north. They wanted to do medical testing, thought maybe wolves had advanced healing or regenerative properties.” He opened and closed his metal hand, his eyes dull. “We don’t. They tested a lot of drugs on us. I went feral.”  
It was clearly a painful subject. “You don’t have to talk about it.” James offered.  
Bucky shook his head. “No, I want to. You’re planning to go chasing after this wolf and try to put put him down and it’s not right. I was as feral as you could get. I hadn’t shifted to human for months, I couldn’t speak, wasn’t coherent enough to want to change back.... I had tasted human flesh and I liked it. The scientists ripped me apart and put me back together until there wasn’t anything left of me.”  
Bucky looked at doorway that Tony had gone through. “And the pack brought me back.” He turned back to the two hunters. “I know you’re gonna want to go in there with guns blazing. Don’t. These are good wolves, and they know what they’re doing when they offer another way. When given the chance, anyone can change. I did.”  
Jeanette laughed. “Oh, that’s cute. So you can kill all you want then good old Steve gives you a pat on the back and all is forgiven? Your hands are washed clean?”  
“How should I clean them, then? Rot in the guilt? I’m doing better, and I’m helping others now ... that's all I can do. Going feral isn’t a choice, it’s an unavoidable reaction to being changed against your will, and it can be cured.”  
She stalked closer, a white knuckled grip on her hammer. “Tell me, how many people have you killed?”  
Bucky raised an eyebrow. “How many have you?”  
“It’s different. They were monsters.”  
Tony stepped back into the room, rubbing his hands on the towel. “Monster. That’s an interesting word. Wolves have bedtimes stories about the monsters in the night. The hunters with the big knives and bloody coats who smell like gunsmoke and rage.”  
Jeanette threw her hammer to the ground. “Monsters are monsters and people are people and that’s never going to change. Nobody can change, you are who you are and you live with it.”  
James got up and held on to her arm. He leaned in close, and his voice was cold. “Jeanette, we are in a werewolf den. We have no weapons and no idea how many wolves are here. For once in your life, please don’t do anything stupid.”  
She took a deep breath. “I think I’ll go for a drive.”  
“Great. Smartest thing you’ve said all day.” 

Tony lead them out of the garage, giving Bucky a pat on the shoulder as he passed. He ushered them down the hallway at a brisk pace. “I don’t think it would be a good idea to come back here, and I would try not to run into Steve again if you can help it. He and Bucky tell each other everything and he won’t take kindly to talk of monsters. I need to finish fixing the bike, do whatever the hell you want and try not to get into any more trouble.”  
Tony slammed the door shut before either of them could respond. He didn’t take kindly to talk of monsters either. James turned on Jeanette.  
“What the hell were you thinking?”  
Jeanette started walking towards the car. They had taken two again because Jeanette and Tony were both children when it came to fighting over who was driving.  
“We don’t need them. They’ll only stand in our way. Did you hear that? This guy has killed five people and they want to invite him to live with them. Bucky admitted to killing people! They’re probably all killers!”  
“Tony’s never killed anyone.”  
“You know that for a fact? You know everything he did before you met and everything he’s done in the years since? Or are you so desperate for affection that you’re letting it blind you?”  
“All you ever do is hunt so you see monsters everywhere, even when they don’t exist!” James shouted back. Jeanette took a step back in shock. James never yelled. He sat on the hood of the car, head hung low and Jeanette cautiously sat beside him. He didn’t look at her. “I thought you and Tony were going to get along, you both like terrible music and fast cars and have another million little things in common and instead you never gave him a chance.” He looked at her and she couldn’t meet his eyes. “He was my first real friend, Jean. I wanted you two to get along. I wanted you to know what it felt like to have a friend too.”  
She scuffed at the dirt and tapped her fingers on the hood of the car. “I’ve had friends. I’ve had lots of friends.”  
“Don’t lie to me.”  
“Jane was my friend.”  
“Jane Peterson from second grade? Where is she now? How is she doing?”  
Jeanette didn’t respond.  
“You don’t know, because we moved like we always did, and left everyone behind. Jane, from second grade. God, is that when you realised we were never going to stay in any place longer than a month and gave up?”  
“We’re doing good work,” she said angrily.  
“Why do we have to be the ones to do it? Jean you’ve been fighting your whole life, why not take a couple years off? Go to college like I did. Make some friends. Figure out who you are beyond being a hunter.”  
Her fingers tapped faster, an errant beat against the hot metal. “I have to find dad.”  
James put his hand on top of hers, and the tapping stopped. “We’re not going to find dad.”  
Jeanette jerked away. “Get in the car. We’re going back to the beach to keep looking for clues.”  
“Jean-”  
“Get in the fucking car or so help me god I will leave you here.”  
James got in the car.  
Jeanette got in and revved the engine. Music started pouring out of the stereo and she turned it up until the knob hit the max. Jeanette broke the speed limit the whole way to the beach and Jame’s legs felt wobbly as he got out. He didn’t say anything as Jeanette stalked around the beach. The body and all of the blood and crime scene equipment was gone. Without it, it was a beautiful spot, with bright sand and gentle waves. He sat down with a sigh. All of Malibu had been beautiful so far and James wished that he could stay. He and Tony could go to the beach, and walk together across the sand. Maybe try to outdo each other on sandcastles, then give up when the waves washed them away. James could grill hot dogs. Maybe Jeanette would be there. Maybe they would all be happy and smiling and it would be nice.  
“I think I found a part of a finger!” Jeanette yelled from across the beach.  
James sighed and laid back in the sand, stretching his arms out above his head. A shadow fell across his face.  
“Go away Jean, I don’t want to see whatever mangled body parts you found.”  
There was a low snarl and James opened his eyes. It was the wolf.


	5. Shocks

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> More insight into Rhodey's past with Tony and a fight with the wolf.

### 

Three years into knowing each other Tony kissed James and they started dating. James was content, more content than he had ever been before, and more content than he ever thought he would be. Four years into their relationship and one year into dating, Tony broke up with him.  
“It’s not you, it’s me?” James asked, a little in shock.  
“No, it’s you.” Tony said, matter of fact. 

He went on to explain. “I am head over heels in love with you and the best you can give me is a ‘meh’. We’re dating and I feel like I’m in the friend zone. Are you even happy?”  
“I don’t think I’m happy but I do love you,” James insisted. He liked Tony more than any other person he had met outside of his family. He liked not living alone, and splitting the chores. It was nice having someone to do homework with and he got sex without all of the effort of trying to seduce a stranger at the bar. Having a long term partner was very practical.  
“You’re loving me wrong.”  
Practical for the most part. The fights weren’t my fun and he couldn’t drive to the next town over to escape like he would a one night stand.  
“Did I do something to offend you? Did I hurt you somehow?”  
“No. You’re not doing your part wrong in relation to me, you’re doing it wrong for yourself,” Tony growled in frustration. “You’re not in love with me! And I want you to be happy, so I’m breaking up with you so you can find someone you do have a spark with.”  
“I have a spark with you,” James said, confused. Tony shook his head.  
“You have a chore list with me and all of our date nights are spent doing math homework.”  
“Going out is an unnecessary risk. It makes me nervous because I can’t protect you as well.”  
“Going out is supposed to be fun! What’s the point of dating me if going out together makes you unhappy? We’ve gone out twice, total, in a year of dating. We’re like a couple who has been married for thirty years and all of the magic has gone out of our relationship and we stick together out of inertia and the fear that we won’t be able to find anyone else if we split up.”  
“So what do we do?”  
“We split up.”  
“Oh.” 

It hadn’t hit the first time around. Tony threatened to break up with him every time he withheld coffee or ate the last cookie, he was used to it. This wasn’t a joke. Tony was leaving him. James was hit with a bolt of pure panic. “Please don’t.” He hated how small his voice came out.  
“Rhodey-”  
“Please don’t,” he said again. Normally he was so much better at making his point than this. He had always been quick on his feet and a real people person, always known what to say to get what he needed. Now his brain was all snarled up like a ball of yarn, and at the center was the thought - Tony’s breaking up with me. 

Was Tony going to move out? Would they stay friends? Would they drift apart and James would look up from his homework in a year and realize that he hadn’t talked to Tony in months?  
James was the one who always had to leave because his father found a new monster to hunt and they all had a duty. Tony wasn’t supposed to be able to be the one who left, and for no better reason than because he thought it would be good for James.  
“Please,” he said, “please don’t.”  
Tony hugged him and James buried his face in Tony’s shoulder. “I want to love you. I want to be happy. I don’t know how. I can fight, I can hunt. I don’t think I was built for love.”  
“Then change.” 

Tony said it like it was the easiest thing in the world. Maybe for Tony it was. The shift from a hunter to a civilian as easy as the slide from fur to flesh. For James it wasn’t half as simple.  
Tony rubbed a hand up and down Jame’s back. “I’ll never leave you. Even if we break up, we’ll still be best friends. You’re my Rhodey. Now come on.”  
Tony took him by the hand and led him down the hall. Their apartment had a rec room on the top floor with a shitty ping pong table and some chairs. Tony pushed the table into a corner and set his phone on top. He tapped for a few seconds and the music started playing. Tony grabbed both his hands and led him to the center of the room.  
“If you don’t feel safe going out then we’ll stay in until you do. We’re going to dance, right here.”  
“I don’t know how.”  
“I’m teaching you. All you need to do is follow my lead.”  
Tony stepped to the left and James followed a second behind, careful to avoid stepping on Tony.  
“People are going to come up here and yell at us for playing music so late.”  
“They might.”  
“I think you broke the ping pong table when you moved it.”  
“It’s possible.”  
“I stepped on your foot.”  
“I’m fine, don’t worry about stepping on me. I won’t get mad. Take a deep breath, loosen up, quit checking the exits for threats, and listen to the music.”  
James sighed and looked over Tony’s shoulder to check the doorway again anyway. “It’s a little hard to waltz to AC/DC.”  
Tony spun them around so that James’s back was to the door. “I don’t have any romantic music on my phone. Relax, Rhodey. We’ve lived here for years. You’ve scoped out this whole building a hundred times. No one wants to hurt us. We’re safe. Say it.”  
“We’re safe.”  
“That’s right. What are you thinking about right now?”  
“I might step on your foot. You might call this off and decide I’m hopeless after all and break up with me. Someone could be coming. I’m planning on what to do if there is a threat. Probably get you under the ping pong table and throw the chair closest to the door, then retreat to the dart board and start throwing darts. A shot to the eye with a dart could kill if I threw it hard enough. Then take the ping pong net and-” 

Tony interrupted. “You know what I’m thinking?”  
James shook his head.  
“I think you look very handsome.”  
James stumbled and stepped on Tony’s foot. “What?”  
Tony guided him back into the series of steps without missing a beat. “I think I could stare into your eyes forever. First time I saw your eyes I thought they were black, they're so dark. Then the sun hit them just right and I realized that they were brown. It’s easier to see up close. Like coffee, when it’s the bottom of the pot but not burned because you’ve been drinking it so fast and you’re the only one still up and everyone else is tucked away in bed, and you add eighteen sugars because that’s how many were left, and it slides down your throat like molasses and hits just right to keep you going until the sun starts to peak in from under the blinds and you can’t stop working because every thought flows into the next and inspiration drips from the fingers of the muse like coffee into the pot.”  
They spun around the room a few times in silence, AC/DC filling the space with rumbling sound. 

“You mean all that?” James finally asked.  
“All of it. What are you thinking?”  
“I’m thinking you should have gone into English instead of math.”  
Tony laughed. “My dad would have killed me. Besides, I wouldn’t have met you. Now it’s your turn. Pretend for a moment that nothing in the world exists except you and me. There’s no danger, no worries. You, and me. Me, and you. What are you thinking?”  
“There could be danger here.”  
“In the rec room of our apartment? If you can’t feel safe here, then you are going to have to live the rest of your life in fear, looking around every corner and under every bed for monsters. You already found the monster in the room Rhodey, and he’s holding your hands and making you do a waltz.”  
James took a deep breath and closed his eyes. He let the tension drain from his shoulders and stopped worrying about where he was putting his feet, trusting Tony to guide him. Tony’s hand was warm in his.  
“I’ve always liked your hands.”  
“Yeah?”  
“You build wonderful things. I wish I could do that.”  
“You could,” Tony insisted.  
“I don’t know. My fingers are big and clumsy. Dad had me boxing before I was five and over the years my knuckles have gotten messed up. Not good for much beyond punching or shooting a gun.”  
“I think your hands could do a lot of things, if they wanted. I think it’s up to you.” 

James rested his head on Tony’s shoulder and let his gentle hands guide him. Step forward, step back, step forward. Turn. A small step of progress, a setback, more progress. A new direction. A new path. A new step forward. On and on, with Tony holding him tight.  
  


... 

  


Being love with Tony was like living in a dream. At the end of the day you had to wake up and smell the wet dog.  
James rolled out of the way as the werewolf slashed at him, sharp claws raking through the sand.  
“Jean, get the shotgun!” he yelled and started running towards the car. He didn't want to shoot the wolf but if it was going to come down to his life or the wolves, he was going to fight. He ripped open the door and pulled it shut as the wolf slammed into the car, rocking it on its wheels. He pulled out his phone and hit the first contact.  
“Rhodey, Honey Bear, Darling, your sister is a bitch, do not bring her back here, I don’t care if she’s sorry.”  
“Tony! We found the wolf, it’s at the crime scene we went to earlier!” There was a horrible screech as the wolf tried to claw through the metal. The window cracked. James dived into the back seat and started digging around in his bag for a gun. “If your werewolf friends want to help, now’s the time!”  
“I’ll call Steve.” The phone made a click and James jammed it in his pocket. His hand found his handgun and he pulled it from his bag. He aimed it at the wolf through the window and it snarled. It rammed the car again and James shot at it through the widow and missed. It came around the other side and tried again, ducking low whenever he raised his gun. James ducked left then swerved right and shot off the end of the wolf’s ear. It turned and ran with a low bellied snarl. James scooted over to the window and looked out through the spiderweb of cracks. The wolf was running towards Jeanette. She held up her gun and fired twice, the shots sending up puffs of sand as the wolf dodged. Then she was out of time and it was on her, tackling her to the ground.  
“Jeanette!” James ran towards them with his gun. They rolled back and forth in the sand, too tangled up to risk a shot. There was a screech of tires and a blond wolf charged past James to join the fight. The blond wolf was much larger than the black one and it was able to knock it off Jeanette. James rushed in and pulled her back from the snarling wolves. He rubbed his hands frantically up and down her arms. “Are you ok? You get bit?”  
“I’m fine, I’m fine,” she insisted, pushing herself up. A red car pulled up and Tony and Bucky jumped out, both armed with long guns. Tony rushed to the hunters while James used the top of the car to brace his aim of his dart gun. The two wolves were still tangled up in the fight, and blood started to speckle the sand. Bucky fired twice in quick succession, then a third time. Both wolves howled and started to writhe on the sand. Fur receded and in seconds both wolves were human. 

Bucky slung the rifle over his shoulder and offered Steve a hand up and a pair of pants from his bag.  
“You shot me.” Steve complained, pulling a dart out of his chest. “What happened to being the ‘worlds greatest sniper’?”  
“Shouldn’t have been wiggling around so much then. And this way you can help me load him into the car.”  
“Humph.” Steve held a hand to his shoulder where he was bleeding from a large bite. “The paperwork for this is going to be a pain.” He glanced over his shoulder. “You all alright?”  
“Fine,” both Tony and Jeanette responded.  
“Rhodey?” Tony asked, worried at his lack of response.  
James had his eyes locked on the figure lying curled up in the sand and he felt his breath pick up in his throat.  
“Jimmy?” Jeanette asked, grabbing his arm.  
“James?” Asked the werewolf.  
“Dad?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tony and Rhodey are dancing to Hell Ain’t A Bad Place To Be by AC/DC, here’s a couple lines:  
“Late at night  
Turns down the light  
Closes up on me  
Opens my heart  
Tears me apart”


	6. Rigged Games

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Flashback to a day at Lakeside

### 

“Screw the rules! All the rules were made up by humans, and if they don’t believe in me then I don’t believe in them! I’m a break in the system, a flaw in the code.” Tony yelled.  
“You’re not a flaw.”  
“Always so gentle with me. Sweetheart, Darling, I adore you.” Tony fluttered his lashes dramatically and pressed a kiss to James’ hand. “Let’s go tell that couple by the lamppost that I’m a werewolf, let’s see what they say. Do you think they’ll laugh? Maybe they’ll call the cops. Shall we test it?”  
“You are unbelievable.”  
Tony laughed and ran in the other direction, and James chased him with a laugh. James grabbed his arm and Tony swooned, forcing James to catch him.  
“Oh no, the big bad hunter has caught me, whatever shall I do?”  
“Stop that.” James shut him up with a kiss, and Tony laughed against his lips. He tasted like cheap beer and blue cotton candy and pure summer bliss. They had been dating two years (and were a year from their very short lived break up) and they were both stupid in love. 

It was a Wednesday night which meant it was date night according to Tony, and they were at Lakeside. It was like an amusement park, except smaller and more shitty. There wasn’t much in the way of rides so they were working their way through the carnival games and losing horribly. Tony wanted to ignore the rules and try to cheat so they could win something. James wanted to not get kicked out of Lakeside. 

“Everything is impossible to win. Cheating levels the playing field,” Tony said, spreading out his hands like he had made a perfectly reasonable point.  
“No!” James couldn’t believe that this was a fight they were having.  
Tony made a grumpy noise and walked to the next booth. It looked like a fun game. You had to shoot a balloon with a bb gun. Shoot three orange ones and win a pretty nice prize. James immediately noticed what had grabbed Tony’s attention; there was a large plush wolf sitting at the top of the prize wall. It was one of the prizes that lured people in, then they missed the balloons and ended up with a temporary tattoo or a slinky or some garbage.  
Tony looked at him with wide eyes. “Please?”  
“Nobody wins those prizes, it’s a trap.” James warned him.  
“How can you rig balloons? Rhodey, I need it!” Tony whined. “I’m going to try.” 

Tony approached the man at the booth and rapped his knuckles on the warped wood. “How much for a round? I’m feeling lucky.”  
The old man running the booth pushed a gun across the table. “Three bucks for six shots. Hit three orange balloons and get a prize. Hit one in any color and I’ll give you a sticker.”  
Tony nodded and pushed the money across. “Any sort of werewolf discount? No? There never is.”  
James sighed. “Sure, just tell everyone you’re a werewolf. No way that could go badly. You could never be a superhero, you wouldn’t be able to keep a secret identity for a second.”  
Tony scoffed at him. “I’m not ashamed of it. I love being a wolf and I would be a great superhero. I’d be a wolf themed sharpshooter. Watch this!”  
Tony held the gun up to his eye and took aim at the balloons. They were spread out so that the orange ones were all in the corners, far from the other balloons that were all clustered together in the center. The orange ones were also not blown up as large, making them a smaller target and making the plastic thicker and harder to puncture with the bb. James also knew enough about the guns they had at carnivals to know that it was going to pull hard to either the right or left. It wouldn’t matter if it did anyway, Tony was holding it like it was a snake that was going to bite him and his grip was all wrong. His first shot didn’t even hit the wood backboard. He lined up and tried again, then looked at the gun in confusion when nothing happened.  
“I think it’s broken.”  
“You need to cock it before you can shoot again.”  
“Heh. You said-.”  
“I know what I said.” James took it, cocked it for him, and handed it back. Tony’s next shots didn’t go any better. Tony put the gun back down on the table.  
“Fuck.”  
He hadn’t hit a single balloon. He pushed three more dollars across the beat up table and the old man dropped them in his lock box.  
“I’m going to try again,” he said and carefully lined up his shot. From where James was standing it looked like he was going to hit the ceiling of the tent. “You want to aim a little lower there, Tones?”  
“I think this looks good.” Tony pulled the trigger. He hit the ceiling of the tent and James rolled his eyes. All in all, Tony did worse the second time. He didn’t hit a single balloon. He made a low growl in his throat and the old man running the booth gave him a weird look. James pulled him away from the table. “I think that's enough of that game.” 

He glanced around the park and confirmed that none of the other people had gotten closer. James loved summer because everyone was wearing short and tight clothes and it was easy to see that no one was carrying a weapon. Tony pulled his attention back to him.  
“I wanted to win the wolf! Look at its little squishy face. I need it.”  
“You are a spoiled brat who does not need a stuffed animal. What would you do with it? It has no purpose. It doesn’t do anything.”  
“It doesn’t need to do anything. It’s cute and I want to rub my face on it. One more try.”  
“Tones, it’s a waste of money.”  
“It’s three dollars!”  
“That’s three cans of beef ravioli. Or that's four potatoes. A whole three pound container of oatmeal. You’re being wasteful, that’s all I’m saying.”  
James realised that his fists were clenched and he forced himself to relax. Tony looked at him like he was a horse about to spook. “Ok. You wanna go sit down?” 

They walked over to a bench and sat. James put his head in his hands and Tony rubbed a hand up and down his back.  
“Sorry.”  
“It’s ok.”  
“Dad’s been a hunter for as long as I can remember. And when we were little he would leave us in a motel room for a week or two while he took care of business. He would leave us what cash he had, but hunting doesn’t pay. Once he gave us three dollars for the two of us and left for a week. How the hell was I supposed to feed Jeanette on that? It was my job to watch out for her. Now you’ve just spent twice as much to fail at hitting balloons.”  
“I’m sorry.”  
“It’s not your fault.”  
“My father gave me money all the time. We had a system, me and him. He didn’t have to show up to anything of mine, and instead he’d send an envelope of cash. Happy birthday, here’s some money. Sorry I missed the science fair. Sorry I missed your piano concert. Oh, did you move to a new boarding school? Another birthday? Christmas?” Tony looked down at his hands. “I thought maybe if I was smarter or braver or more skilled than he might care. Maybe he wouldn’t go to my school science fair but he would go to the state science fair? Maybe nationals? Maybe internationals? He never cared. I’ve always had a lot of money to burn. I wish I could have found little James and Jeanette Rhodes, and given it all to you.”  
“I wouldn’t have taken it because I wouldn’t have opened the door for a stranger.”  
Tony laughed. “Then I would have slipped it under the door.” He dug in his pocket and pulled out a crumpled five dollar bill. He snapped it twice. “The rest of my cash. I know you’re not a broke kid anymore, but here, take it. Play a round.”  
James took the bill and smoothed it out on his thigh. “It’s still a waste.”  
“It’s not a waste to spend money on something fun. Fun is good. Fun is important. Go win your boyfriend a stuffed wolf.” 

James got up and went back to the booth. He handed the man the bill and took his change. He he turned the gun over a few times in his hands. The barrel was straight which was good, and when he cocked it the resistance level felt about right. He lined up his shot. He could tell that the aiming notch at his end had been filed down. That explained why Tony had been shooting so high. He compensated for that, and pointed at the first balloon. He made sure the stock was resting security against his shoulder and slowly breathed out. When he reached the end he held it and pulled the trigger. It went too far left. He corrected and pulled the trigger again. The orange balloon burst with a pop.  
Tony grabbed his arm. “Rhodey! Rhodey! You hit it! You’re amazing!”  
He had to pause. He had once made a shot through a broken window at a running djinn at night from thirty yards and all his father had told him was that he wouldn’t have had to shoot from so far if he could show up on time for once. Now he shot a balloon from ten paces and Tony was pressing tiny kisses against his jaw and whispering compliments.  
“You’re easily impressed.”  
“Ignore me, I’m just happy. Are you happy?”  
James put the gun down and tugged Tony into a hug so he could talk quietly. “I don’t know. I think so.”  
Tony ran a hand up his side and James felt himself relax at the touch. “Close your eyes. You’re safe, I’ve got you. You feel the sun on your back?”  
“Yeah?”  
“Feels nice, doesn’t it? I can smell cotton candy. Can you?”  
“That and popcorn and grass. S’nice.”  
“Good. It is nice, isn’t it? Relax. There’s nowhere you need to be, nothing you need to do. There are no burdens your shoulders need to bear. There is no danger here. Let yourself live in the moment. Let yourself be happy.” 

Last time James had held a gun he had been facing down a vampire, and he had shot to kill. Jeanette and his father had been tied up in the back room, about to become lunch. It had taken six shots to get the vampire to stay down long enough to stake it through the heart and by the end he had been bruised and bleeding. He still had scars up his back from the creature’s claws. He had dragged his unconscious father and sister to the nearest motel before falling unconscious himself on the floor. His father didn’t believe him when he said he hadn’t been bit so he left him chained to the radiator for three days while he waited for any sign of a shift.  
They were in Arizona in the summer and the room was boiling. He was too far away to reach any water and he was afraid to ask for a drink in case his father thought he was thirsting for blood. That was when James decided that he had to get out. The vampire could have easily gotten him, and then he’d be trapped here until he started to shift and his dad shot him to death. He looked into his father’s eyes and there was nothing there. No love, no mercy. A hunter watching his prey.  
He hated hunting. He hated the traveling, he hated eating every meal out of the box, he hated the constant stress, he hated the motels, he hated his father.  
“I quit,” he rasped.  
“What’s that, boy?”  
“I’m done. This is my last case, I’m leaving.”  
His dad laughed. “And where you gonna go? You have no money, no skills.”  
“Then I’ll take out a loan and go to college. I’m done.”  
His dad laughed again and they spent the rest of the day in silence. His dad uncuffed him the next morning and he immediately packed his bags. Jeanette and his father glared at the whole time. He swung his bag on his shoulder and opened the door. “Goodbye.”  
He didn’t know what else to say so he said it again. “Goodbye.”  
“Jimmy, you can’t do this. You can’t just leave!” Jeanette said. “We’re family! We have to stick together!” For a second he hesitated. He had been taking care of Jeanette his whole life, could he leave her now?  
Their dad put a heavy hand on her shoulders.  
“Don’t worry Jean, he’ll be back in a week once he sees that no one else wants him.”  
James wanted to yell. He wanted to scream and shake them and make them understand how screwed up their lives were. Instead he turned and left, and shut the door behind him. 

He sat down at the closest library and got to work. He figured that if he was going to fake his papers to get rid of his record and outstanding warrants and to say he passed highschool with flying colors when he’d actually been to 18 schools in four years and not completed a single class, he might as well shoot for the stars. He made himself the perfect student, wrote the essay of the century, and made it into MIT where he met Tony. He hadn’t touched a gun in all the years since. His body still remembered, and would probably never forget. Like riding a bike, the knowledge of how to shoot was part of him. It was easy to line up the muzzle with a target. It felt good to have the weight of the stock in his shoulder. He liked how one hand held wood and one held metal, both with their own kind of smoothness under his fingers. Most of all he liked that his target was a balloon, and the only stakes were a stuffed animal, and he was miles and years from killing. Because he chose to walk a new path.  
Because he chose to try to be happy. 

He pulled Tony into a kiss. “I am happy. Thank you.” He stepped back to the booth and picked up the gun. He cocked the gun and took aim. “Two more to go.”  
He fired and the bb bounced off the orange balloon. It wobbled up and down and stayed on the board. James swore to himself. They guy must have coated the inside in liquid latex or that stuff you could buy at party stories to make balloons last longer. He lined up his shot and hit the balloon again. This time it popped, and Tony squealed. “That’s two! One more!”  
James set his sights on the last orange balloon. He breathed out slowly and pulled the trigger. At the last second the wind blew and the balloon swayed away. He was down to his last shot, and he could feel Tony vibrating with excitement beside him.  
He fired his last shot and it bounced off the balloon. He did everything right, and still was not good enough.  
Tony let out a disappointed whine. “So close.” He looked at the old guy. “Give him one more shot?”  
The old man shook his head. “Rules are rules. You hit two so you can pick out which sticker you like from the box over there.”  
Tony huffed and went back to the bench where they had been sitting earlier. James came and sat down beside him.  
“You were right,” Tony complained. “It was rigged. Did you see how that bb bounced off the balloon? Rigged. How are you supposed to win?”  
“You can’t win a rigged game. All you can do is decide to quit.”  
“Stupid.” Tony muttered. James pressed a kiss to the side of his head.  
“Told you so. Sticker?”  
Tony looked at the entire box of stickers that James was holding out and bent over laughing.  
James grinned. “What? He said I could pick any sticker I wanted, so I picked all of them.”  
Tony laughed and laughed and James laughed with him, all the way back to their car as they were forcibly removed from Lakewood for petty theft.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’m sorry I didn’t fix the cliffhanger but I thought I needed more on how James and his father left things the last time they saw each other. Next chapter picks up in the present time.  
Does anyone else have Lakesides? Or is that just a thing where I live?


	7. Deadbolted Doors

### 

Jeanette and James stood in the hallway and watched their father sleep. Steve had insisted on bringing him back to the compound and James and Jeanette had been in too much shock to protest. The wolves already had a room set up for ferals, with padded walls and a large clear door that locked from the outside. Their dad was lying on a hospital cot in the middle of the room, sleeping. Bucky had explained that it was normal to sleep deeply for several hours after switching forms after being stuck for a long time. Something about the brain doing a hard reset. Bucky had left after that, and was currently having a conversation with Steve and Tony in the kitchen. They all came back out as a group when the older man started shifting around uncomfortably on the bed. Tony stood close to James and if James leaned on him slightly neither of them mentioned it. 

His dad stopped moving. That meant he was awake and realized that he was in an unfamiliar situation and don't want to let on that he was up. Jeanette rapped on the door. “Dad, it’s us.”  
He opened his eyes and sat up. “Jean, where the hell am I?”  
“Malibu, in a building called the compound.”  
“Malibu? Why the hell am I in Malibu?”  
Steve stepped forward. “What’s the last thing you remember?”  
“Why should I tell you anything? Jean, who are these people? How did I get to Malibu?”  
Jeanette shook her head, not sure how to respond. James stepped forward. “They’re friends, Dad. You can trust them. What’s the last thing you remember?”  
“I was in Nevada for a werewolf case. It got the jump on me, the filthy animal.”  
Jeanette pressed a hand to the glass. “Can I go in?”  
Steve shook his head. “People don’t react well to the news. Tell him, and if he’s alright after that you can go in.”  
“Tell me what? Have I been kidnapped? You have no right to hold me here!”  
Steve held up his badge. “Here, I’ll tell him. I’m Steve Rogers, Captain of the Malibu Police Force. You are currently being detained for your own safety. I’ll skip the talk about how there's a whole secret world of the supernatural out there because it seems like you’re already well aware. Congratulations, you’re a werewolf. I have pamphlets if you have any questions.” 

Their dad stared at them all in silence, and James held his breath. Finally his dad started to laugh. Louder and louder, until he was choking on his own spit and breath. James couldn’t take it and he turned and ran. Tony followed him and guided him into a room and sat him down on the bed. “Breathe, it’s going to be ok.”  
“He’s going to kill all of you and then himself.” James said dully. Tony held his hand.  
“He’s locked in, and all of our phones will go off if the door is forced. And Steve and Bucky were in the military, they can handle one man.”  
“Lock the door anyway.”  
Tony got up and flipped the lock shut. He propped the chair from the desk under the door handle.  
“Thank you.”  
Tony nodded and sat next to him on the bed. James fiddled with the edge of the blanket as his other hand tapped on the bedspread.  
Tony held his hands so he would stop fidgeting. “Do you want to talk about it?”  
“No.” 

Tony laid down on the bed and after a few seconds James laid down next to him. He rested his head on Tony’s chest and wrapped and arm around him. Tony rubbed his hand up and down his back and James closed his eyes.  
“He’s not going to be able to live with this.”  
“He’s going to have to.”  
“I don’t want to see him again.”  
“Alright. He won’t be allowed to leave the compound for at least a month. You can come back to my place. Why don’t we go back right now?”  
James nodded and Tony got up to move the chair and unlock the door. They crept through the house like kids up past their bedtimes trying not to get caught by their parents. They made it to the car with no problems and Tony drove them back to his place. Once they were inside James paced around the house and made sure all of the doors and windows were locked. He paused in front of Tony’s room. He glanced back to Tony who was watching him do his rounds from the kitchen table. “May I go in?”  
Tony nodded his consent and got up to open the door for him. James followed him in and looked around. It was Tony’s room but all he saw was himself. Walls in his favorite shade of blue, slightly too pastel to be masculine but light like a cloudless summer day. A large bed pushed into the corner, so that there were less sides that a threat could sneak up on. The door to the closet was open and he could see that the inside of the door had a thick latch on it, so there would be some place to hide if someone did break in. There was a deadbolt on the main bedroom door. It also had a peep hole like a door in a hotel so they could see out without others seeing in. There was a thick bookcase right next to the door, easy to push over to act as a barricade. There was another that could be pushed in front of the window. The glass of the window was three inches thick and had the cloudiness that mean it was plastic instead of glass that could be shattered. There was a nightstand by the bed where a gun could be stored, and hooks above the bed where a shotgun or a baseball bat could be hung. In short, it was the most defensible room he had ever been in.  
Tony never cared about any of that. Tony lived in a world where the worst weapon was a cutting word or a vicious business deal. He did all of this for James, so that he would feel safe.  
When James had first started civilian life, he quit hunting cold turkey. He threw out all his guns, he got a shitty apartment on the ground floor with a door that barely latched, and an old AC unit that was so loud he couldn’t tell if anyone was coming down the hall. 

He slept maybe half an hour that whole week. 

He left that place, and found a new one. This one was on the second floor, had a deadbolt on the door, and he pushed shelves in front of all of the windows and kept a baseball bat by his bed. It wasn’t perfect, and he woke up about four times a night whenever he heard a noise, but it was a better sleep than he ever got while hunting with his family and he felt blessed. At least this way his dad wasn’t waking him up at random times to test his reflexes, and he wasn’t staying in a town that he knew was full of monsters. Every time he shut the dead bolt or had to turn on the lights in the middle of the day because all of the windows were blocked up he hated himself. He was supposed to be starting his life as a normal person, not turning his apartment into a fortified bunker. 

His move to the dorms at MIT had been a stressful affair. All first year students had to live in the dorms, those were the rules. It didn’t matter how rich or how paranoid you were. When James got there he knew he was going to be miserable. The door had a single lock and it was electronic, opened with a keycard. It would take him five minutes to rig something up to break in. A skinny brown haired boy walked up beside him and stared at the lock. “I could break that in five seconds with a cell phone and a used battery.”  
“Right? Stupid to put a lock on at all if it’s going to be shit.” James turned to look at the kid a little more closely, and held out his hand. “Jonathan Roads.”  
The fake name felt weird in his mouth. The kid didn’t seem to notice.  
“Tony Stark. I’m your roommate.” He shook his hand like he had grown up in a boardroom and James had just signed a multimillion dollar business contract with him.  
They went into the room and it wasn’t as bad as James had feared. There were no windows and the door was pretty thick. There was a lofted bed and that could throw off an intruder. The lock was the only weak point. It still bothered him so much he couldn’t sleep. Tony had no such troubles, and was snoring away minutes after James hit the lights. 

James slept in thirty minute stretches that whole week. The problem was that there was nothing he could do to make himself feel safer. The dorms had a strict policy against weapons and also against adding your own deadbolts to the doors. Whenever he tried to close his eyes and relax all he could think about was the monster his dad had killed that snuck up at night and ate dreams until the victim eventually went brain dead. Or the night they had been in town to hunt a nest of vampires and they had struck at two in the morning, and only the fact that he kept a gun under his pillow had saved him. 

Tony noticed how tired he looked. “Can’t sleep in a new bed? I’ve been shifting around boarding schools and summer camps since I was six, I can sleep anywhere. This is great because I’m only sharing a room with you and not thirty other boys who are all trying to jack off under the covers without getting caught. Do it in the showers, that's what I always say.”  
“I’ll keep that in mind.”  
“Seriously though, you look bad, dude.”  
“Thanks,” James responded driely. 

The pattern continued for another week and Tony started dropping subtle hints. Well, he thought they were subtle.  
“Did you know you can die if you go longer than two weeks without sleep?”  
“Hmmmm,” James responded, not listening.  
“Hallucinations can start as early as day three. Just a little fun fact for you.”  
“Good to know.”  
“Did you know that warm beverages can help induce sleep in the majority of the population?”  
“I did know that.”  
“Did you know-”  
“Tony.”  
“I’m sorry! I’m trying to help! Do you want to switch beds? Mine is pretty soft, maybe you got a bad one.”  
“It’s not the bed.” James rubbed his tired eyes. Maybe it was because he was so tired, maybe it was because Tony seemed so eager to help. He decided to tell the truth. “It’s the lock. It’s shit and I’m afraid something is going to get in.”  
“The lock? So if we had a better one you could sleep?”  
“Maybe. But it doesn’t matter, because you can get kicked out of the dorms for damaging the walls or doors and I would need to make some big holes to put in a sturdy enough deadbolt.” 

Tony nodded and stayed quiet. James gathered up his books and went to class. It was some boring history class he had to take because MIT insisted on them being well rounded scholars instead of engineering only goblins like he wanted to be. He doodled airplanes on his notebook as the professor talked, and he was glad when it was time to pack up. He went back to his dorm and tapped his card on the stupid shitty lock. It beeped and went green and he turned the handle. The door didn’t open. He tried again. The door stayed shut. He went to the lobby of the dorm and asked the bored RA at the desk to check his keycard. She confirmed that it was working. He went back to the room and tried again. The lock turned green, and the door wouldn’t open. Maybe it was stuck. He rammed his shoulder into it and it didn’t budge. He frowned at the door and started knocking on it loudly. Maybe Tony could let him in, and he’d deal with the key card later. After a couple of seconds of knocking the door swung open to reveal a grinning Tony.  
“Hi! You knocked?”  
James went in and dumped his bag on his desk chair. “My keycard broke. I couldn’t get the door open.”  
“Oh, I wonder why that could be.” With exaggerated motions Tony shut the door and slid home the largest deadbolt James had ever seen.  
“Tony! You’re going to get in trouble!”  
“Yeah, probably. This baby ain’t subtle and the RAs here all have sticks up their asses.”  
“You’ll get kicked out!”  
“Psh. My dad has donated so much money that they named a wing of the computer science building after him. They’re not going to kick me out. And now you can sleep!” 

James inspected it closely. Tony had done a good job putting it in and he hadn’t been able to budge the door from the other side.  
That night was the first night of his entire life that he slept eight hours straight. 

Tony brushed off his thanks the next morning, like installing a deadbolt was a completely normal favor to do for a roommate. Tony never bothered him about any of his ticks. If James needed his bed to be facing the door, the Tony rearranged the room without complaint. When they met at a restaurant Tony made sure to get a table in the back and left James the seat with his back to the wall. After a freak out he stopped bringing home rare steak. He left his computer screen up so their room was never completely dark. 

Tony acted flighty, and couldn’t remember his address or phone number or even his social security number so people thought he was careless.  
As James watched Tony pound a sign into the lawn asking people not to set of New Year’s fireworks to be respectful of veterans he wondered if Tony played it up to get people to underestimate him. Tony finished with his sign and put his hands on his hips. “Look good?”  
James looked at Tony’s arms, strong from all the work he did in the metal labs and covered in a thin layer of sweat from pounding in signs around campus. “Looks great.”  
Tony didn’t notice his attention. “Great. That was the last one.”  
“I’m not a veteran, you know,” James said.  
“Not everything I do ties directly back into you. And people call me self centered. Maybe Pepper from student gov has me wrapped around her little finger and asked me to put them up.”  
“You never listen to Pepper.”  
Tony stuck his tongue out at him but didn’t argue.  
“I’m not a verteran.”  
“You still jump at loud bangs.”  
James hadn’t realized that Tony had noticed. Then Tony had figured out a way to try to solve the problem and never would have mentioned it if James hadn’t pressed the point.  
“So not a verteran? That was my main guess. The way you act sometimes I would have swore you’ve been through war. Plus you’re older than everyone else here. I thought you’d been on tour then came to college thanks to the GI Bill.” 

That sounded like a nice story, the way Tony laid it out. Enlisting right out of highschool, serving a few years, then getting the military to pay for his college. Going back to be career military. He would be in the air force, he could fly the jets until he got too old then he would ride a desk. He wished that that was how his life had gone. Every scar and nervous twitch would have been earned by doing something to help his country. On the fourth and Memorial day people would thank him for his service, and he would be proud to tell people what he had devoted his life to. Maybe in another life. Instead he was paying for college through credit card scams and student loans, and pretending his name was Jonathan Roads because there were too many warrants out for the arrest of a man named James Rhodes. Nobody believed in the supernatural so if he said he had spent his whole life killing monsters they would lock him up in a psych ward. He was a veteran of a war that no one knew about, a soldier in an army of three who had deserted his post. 

“I wasn’t in the military,” he said wistfully.  
Tony shrugged. “Alright. Doesn’t matter. We all have ticks, doesn’t matter where they’re from. I always have to drive myself. I hate sleeping in a room alone. I don’t like it when people hand me things. It’s fine. I work around it. That’s life.”  
“That’s life,” James mouthed to himself. He felt something inside him break at Tony’s casual acceptance. “Jumping at nothing? Needing deadbolts before I can sleep? That’s not what life is supposed to be like. That’s not what anybody else’s life is like.”  
Tony put a hand on his arm. “Doesn’t matter what anyone else is doing. They’re all mean and boring anyways. I’d rather have a hundred more of you than any other person in the world. Alright?”  
James rubbed at his eyes. He refused to have a break down in the middle of the campus quad. “Alright.” 

When they moved out of the dorms and into an apartment their second year, Tony let James pick where they lived. It was close enough to walk to campus, and set deep into the ground. Rent was dirt cheap because no one else wanted an apartment with a single shitty kitchen window as the only source of natural light. When they toured it they saw three mice. But the door was solid oak, and the door frame was thick and set into four inch thick walls. When the landlord tried to hand Tony a key James took it for him. They moved all of their shit in, and Tony stood by the door and held up the dead bolt that they had unscrewed from their dorm at MIT. Tony had filled in the holes with wood putty and painted over it. He had still gotten fined, for that and about ten other things, and spent the whole ride to their new apartment complaining about unreasonable RAs. James felt like maybe the RA had a point about the mural Tony drew on the wall in Sharpie depicting their least favorite teachers as donkeys but he knew when to keep his mouth shut. 

Tony held up the deadbolt and shook it. “You still want this?”  
James shook his head. He had been out of the game for over a year. He was sleeping through the night most nights, the nightmares and paranoia fading away with time. Plus the door already had a good solid lock on it, and the handle locked too. He locked both before he went to sleep that night. He laid on his bed at stared at the ceiling. This mattresses was nicer than the one in their dorm. The ceiling was brown instead of white. He rolled over and looked at the wall. He had his bed tucked into the corner like he liked it. The front door was locked. Or at least he thought it was locked. He got up to double check. He pulled on the handle and confirmed that it was. Great. He went back to bed and stared at the ceiling. Had the door moved a little, when he pulled on it? He should probably go check. He got up again. The door was still locked. He went back to bed. The problem was that neither of the locks were easy to see. With the deadbolt he could see the metal safely holding the door shut, and he had a whole year of experience of a deadbolt keeping him safe. Plus in his hunting days the one time a monster had tried to get through a deadbolt it had pounded on the door for three hours until his dad came up from behind and shot it. 

He had watched a demon kick in a door with a door chain. He had watched a chupacabra break through a door knob lock like there was nothing there. He had seen a ghost bust open a door with a wall lock. He had seen so many doors broken down that it was a perfectly logical fear based off of his past life experience and that it made it harder to dismiss. Maybe he should go check the door again. He got up and checked the door. It was still locked. He rested his head against the door and sighed. Tony stuck his head out of his room. “Rhodey, you ok?”  
“I’m fine.”  
“Sure. You look fine. That’s why you’re having a heart to heart with the door at one in the morning.”  
“It’s stupid.” James said with a sigh. “It’s so stupid.”  
Tony wordlessly went back inside his room to get his drill. James helped him line up the deadbolt with the edge of the door frame.  
“I’m sorry. I’m making you install a lock on a door that already has two perfectly good locks in the middle of the night. We’re going to lose our deposit for messing with the door.”  
“If it makes you feel better then it’s not stupid. I want you to feel safe here.”  
“I shouldn’t need it,” James said in frustration. “I hate that I need it.”  
Tony finished screwing it into the wall and slid the bolt home. “Maybe one day you won’t. Maybe tomorrow you’ll go to bed and wake up the next morning and realize that you didn’t lock it and you felt safe anyway. Maybe it will take a week. Maybe a month. Maybe it will never happen. Either way, it will be here. And tonight, we’re going to leave it locked.”  
“It’s stupid.”  
“Then I’m stupid too because I can’t sleep either. What, you thought that I was up at one in the morning for shits and giggles? I can’t sleep.”  
James was immediately concerned. Tony could sleep anywhere. He’d caught him sleeping on a concrete floor. He'd caught him sleeping upright.  
“What’s wrong? How can I help?”  
“It’s too quiet. I’ve been in boarding school my whole life, I’m used to sleeping with other people.”  
Tony looked away and James knew that there was more to this story. He dropped it for the moment and went into his room. He dragged his mattress and all his blankets into Tony’s room. He could disassemble and reassemble his bed frame tomorrow. Tony was curled up on his bed, watching him. James scooted his bed a little closer and Tony’s shoulders relaxed. He shut off the light in the room and left the hallway light on so there was still a dim glow in the room. He laid down on his mattresses and looked at Tony, who hid his face in his arm. 

“It’s a werewolf thing,” Tony whispered. Even though James had found out the first month of living together their first year, Tony still got shy talking about it sometimes. Like his dad was going to pop out of the woodwork and yell at him for giving out precious werewolf secrets.  
“We’re supposed to live in packs. We get sick when we don’t.”  
“Is it making you sick now?”  
Shit, was he going to have to go find some werewolves for Tony to be friends with?  
Tony laughed. “I’m doing better now than I’ve ever been. I get to see Ana and Edwin Jarvis every weekend, and you’re pack at this point. Having you close helps to calm down my wolf side. It was boarding school that was hell. I need people, and it doesn’t help if they’re strangers.”  
“How did that work out with your wolf side then?”  
“It didn’t. Howard sent me away year after year and it just about killed me. I could have gone feral, and he didn’t care. Boarding schools offered the best education, and he didn’t want me want me in any place long enough to form a pack whose authority I might follow over his, and he didn’t want me anywhere near him, so off I went to live at a new school each year. I was six.” Tony laughed a small bitter laugh. “He said it was because I was misbehaving.”  
“It wasn’t your fault.”  
“See, that’s what Jarvis said. But Howard told me straight to my face. I’d misbehaved for the last time, I was a fuck up and a failure and I was being sent away until I deserved to return to the pack. The day he shipped me off to boarding school was the happiest day of his life.”  
“Jesus, Tony.”  
“Rhodey, I can’t go home. He won’t let me go home, I’m all alone.” Tony said, his voice going high and thin like the whine of an abandoned puppy.  
James got off the floor and sat on Tony’s bed and rubbed a hand up and down his side. “You’re not alone. I’m here, and I’m not going to leave. If he won’t let you go home then we’ll build a home of our own, and it’ll be twice as good as his.”  
Tony nodded and James stroked a hand through his hair.  
“We’ll have walls the color of the sky and a beds as soft as clouds. We’ll lay down and go straight to sleep, every time. What else do you want?”  
Tony considered it carefully. “A view of the ocean. We could go down to the beach and swim.”  
“We’ll swim, and grill hotdogs, and build sand castles.” James agreed, and continued. “We won’t just have hot dogs. We’ll have a whole kitchen full of food. Whatever we want, as much as we want.”  
“I’ll have a pack, and they’ll come over for dinner each week and we’ll play games.”  
James ran a hand through Tony’s hair again. “It’s going to be nice.”  
“We have to get there first.”  
“We’ll get there,” James said with complete confidence. “I promise.”  
Tony closed his eyes. “I haven’t had the best luck with promises. Somehow I always find myself alone at the end of the day, no matter what people say.”  
“We’ll get there,” James repeated, helpless to do anything else. “We’ll get there. And until then we’ll make this place home too.”


	8. Fly Away Home

### 

Years later, there was still a part of James that thought of their little apartment as home. It was weird to walk through Tony’s fancy Malibu Mansion and see little ratty parts of their old life together, mixed together with all the things they had talked about. He went to the window and gently unhooked the plane from the ceiling. He had seen it on the first day when Jeanette pushed open the door and he had been thinking about it since. 

James turned the plane over in his hands. “I can’t believe you kept it, out of all the ones we made.”  
Tony glanced down at it. “I liked this one best because it’s the one you built. Remember?”  
James smiled ruefully and hung it back up, careful to not strain the aging glue holding it all together. It held strong. “Only time the directions were followed out of all our planes.”  
“I remember. All the others I made faster or flashier, and most of the others were more expensive too. This one was itself, and that was all you wanted from it.”  
Tony dragged a finger along a wing and the plane swung gently. “That meant a lot to me, at the time. I was trying to be good enough to earn a spot back with my dad and pack, and I never managed to do it. The plane was good enough for you exactly how it was.” Tony gave him an introspective look. “There’s not many people in the world like you, James Rhodes.”  
“Not many like you either. I kept a plane too.”   
James led Tony out to the car where he pulled a beat up box out of the trunk. He set it on the hood of the car and opened it up to reveal chipped red and gold paint and a scribbled name; “Iron Man”.

James remembered the day they build the small red plane like it was yesterday. It had been the day after Tony almost broke up with him, when they danced together. Tony came home from class holding a large box. He shoved it on the kitchen table, sending James’ calculator sliding.  
“Open it!”  
James caught the calculator before it could hit the floor and placed it carefully back on the table. “I’m working.”  
“You always have work, it never ends. It can wait.”  
James ripped the paper off of the box and read the label out loud. “US Allies WWII Model Biplane. Ages 10 and up. What is this?”  
“It’s a model plane. I thought we could build it together.”  
“I don’t know how to build models. Have you ever built a plane before?” James held the box with hands rough and scarred and used to destroying.  
“No. It doesn’t matter.” Tony took the box from him and opened it. He started laying out parts on the table, sorting them into the wings and the body. He found the small tube of glue and held it up. “First step is to probably glue the wings on, right?”  
“Firsts step is probably reading the instructions.”  
Tony's shrugged and coated and the tiny tabs at the end of the wing with glue. He inserted it into the plane and held it there as the glue stiffened.  
“See, that looks right. We’re engineers. We don’t need instructions.”  
“That’s the bottom wing.” James said dryly. “This plane has two wings on each side, a top wing and a bottom wing, and you put the bottom wing in the top wing spot.”  
Tony squinted down at the plane, where the tabs to connect to the other wing were facing upwards instead of down. “Ah. Having two wings is stupid anyways. I bet I could make it go faster with one.”  
“Faster? It’s a model plane. I doesn’t move.”  
Tony laughed and pulled out a second bag, full of spray paint and metal springs and parts. “This one is going to.” 

They worked on the plane for over three hours that day, and three more the next. When they finished it looked absolutely nothing like the picture. It had half as many wings and twice as many propellers and they had spray painted it red and covered it in gold star stickers. It was a disaster. They both stared at the mess on the table.  
“We’re never getting that paint off our table.” James sad.  
“Nope.”  
“We managed to break two wings.”  
“That’s why they gave us spares.”  
“They weren’t spares, it was supposed to have four.”  
“That’s one interpretation.”  
“I think the landing struts are backwards.”  
“Too late, that part is superglued.”  
“It’s not going to fly.”  
“There is absolutely no way that it will fly.” Tony agreed. 

James put his hands on his hips and looked down at the disaster of a plane they had created.  
“I love it.”  
Tony turned to him. “What?”  
“I love it.” 

It was terrible and ugly and they had built it all themselves so that it came out exactly the way they decided, the box and the rules and expectations be damned.  
“What should we name it?” James asked.  
“Iron Man,” Tony decided, and wrote the name on the side in sharpie.  
“Black Sabbath?”  
“It’s a good song and it fits. Our plane was supposed to fly and save the world and instead it came out as a lump of iron. Let’s hang it up by the window.” 

They hung it up by the window where they could see it whenever they walked in, and it stayed there until James moved out. As they built more models more planes filled their kitchen, covering the ceiling and the top of the fridge. Two kept pride of place in the best spot by their only window; a small silver plane that was wholly and completely itself named ‘War Machine’, and a bright red plane with too few wings and too much reckless optimism labeled ‘Iron Man’.  


Now for the first time in a year and a half, they were flying together again.  
There was a chime and Tony looked down at his phone. “Apparently your father ripped up Steve’s pamphlets. He’s very upset.”  
“Steve or my father?”  
“Both.”  
Tony texted back and James looked over his shoulder. “Was ‘lol’ and the laughing face really the best response there?”  
“Steve thinks it means lots of love and that the face is crying. Trust me when I say that that was the kindest thing I could have sent and that he will be deeply touched that I care so much about his pamphlets. I have a bet going with Bucky on how long it will take him to figure out what’s going on so don’t you dare say anything to him.”  
James held his hands up. “My lips are sealed.”  
“Let’s go print him some more for him, I host lunch for the pack on Saturdays so he can pick them up tomorrow. You’ll be able to meet the rest of the pack then too. It’s always a good time.” 

Tony led him to the thick silver door and unlocked it with his finger print. He lead James down a short set of stairs and into a spacious area filled with tools and half assembled cars and machines. One of the machines rolled up to them, whistling cheerfully.  
“DUM-E!” James patted the robot on the head. “You kept our old fire extinguisher robot?”  
“Of course I did. I kept Jarvis too. Say hi, J.”  
“Hello Sirs. May I say that it is a pleasure to see you again, Mr. Rhodes?”  
“It’s good to hear your voice again, J.”  
“Jarvis is only enabled in the basement for now. I’m working on installing cameras and microphones in the rest of the house to give him more room to roam.” Tony clapped his hands together. “J, please print out another set of the Captain’s pamphlets.”  
“Which ones? The importance of a hot lunch, staying fit is fun, reading is exciting, or your changing body?”  
“The last one.”  
“Very good Sir.” 

“Steve is big on PSAs.” Tony explained to James. “He’s got one for every occasion and once a month he goes to a high school to harass the kids into staying out of trouble. He’s also the guy in all of the gym videos they play at public school so most teenagers hate him on sight. Can you imagine being given a speeding ticket by the guy who also makes you do laps?” Tony shuddered. “Horrible. The worst part is that Steve doesn’t see anything wrong with it.” 

James picked up on of the pamphlets off the printer and looked at it. It had the title “Your Changing Body!” written on top in cursive and a stock photo of a man smiling with his pet dog. James guessed that the dog was supposed to be a werewolf. He put the pamphlet back down. He had seen enough.  
“I’m surprised that you get along with Steve as well as you do.”  
Tony shrugged. “We have to get along, he’s the top dog around here and I don’t want to leave Malibu. He’s not so uptight once you get to know him, and he’s got great taste in motorcycles, so he’s not all bad. The rest of the pack is great. You’ve met Bucky, and Bruce is a joy too. I had to find a new lab partner with you gone and Bruce stepped in. We’ve done some amazing science.”  
James didn’t let himself indulge in any jealousy. “I’m glad you finally got a good pack.”  
Tony nodded. “This place is perfect. It has everything we wanted.” Tony stepped forward and backed James against the wall. He hooked his fingers between the buttons of his shirt. “The only thing missing was you.”  
“I had to help Jean find our dad.”  
“And you found him.” Tony purred. “Those were the terms of the deal. You would find your dad, then come right back here to me, and I would build our home for us while I waited.”  
“You called off the deal, the first day I got here.” James reminded him, tentative hope starting to build in his chest.  
“It’s back on and I’m done waiting. Quit hunting and move in. Stay with me. We can be happy.” 

James tried to think about it logically and found that he couldn’t. The situation with his dad and sister was far from stable and it was only a matter of time before it came to a head but he didn’t care. Why did family have to come first when family always meant pain and grief? He wanted to stay with Tony forever where love felt like a choice instead of a burden. 

“Yes.”  
“Yes?” Tony blinked at him like he couldn't quite believe the answer.  
“Yes.” James kissed him and Tony melted. DUM-E beeped in the corner and Tony broke away.  
“Please, not in front of our children.”  
“They’re sensitive, huh?" James teased. "They get that from you.”  
“Do not.”  
“You’re a softy. Tony Soft.”  
“No.”  
“Tony Snark.”  
“No. I know where you’re going with this.”  
“Tony Stank.”  
“We always end up here. I’m shipping you and DUM-E back to MIT.”  
“Return address, Tony Stank, Malibu.”  
Tony laughed and rested his head on James’ shoulder. “Are you ever going to let that go?”  
“Not unless you change your name.”  
“Change it to what?”  
“Rhodes.”  
Tony’s hands balled up in James’ shirt, then relaxed. His voice was light when he responded. “That’s the worst proposal I’ve ever heard.”  
James stroked a hand down Tony’s back. “Not a proposal yet. Testing the waters so when I do go all out you won’t have to turn me down in front of eighty people, an alpaca, and a mariachi band.”  
“Now that sounds like a proposal I could get behind. We’re keeping my name. I believe that Mr. Rhodes is wanted in eight states for the desecration of graves.”  
“You have to burn the bones to get rid of the ghost. I wasn’t digging up bodies for fun.”  
“Why don’t we go down to the police station and you can tell them that? And maybe then they’ll give you a ‘good job’ sticker and send you on your way instead of throwing you in jail.”  
“Steve would believe me.”  
“A police station not run by werewolves.”  
“Maybe they’re all run by werewolves. Maybe there’s a nationwide conspiracy and all cops secretly are wolves, and Steve is the leader of an army of avenging werewolves.”  
“Would I be in this army?” Tony asked playfully. James kissed him and answered softly.  
“You’d be the best of it.” He cupped a hand to his face and Tony closed his eyes. “You’re always the best part of anything.” 

He lead Tony into the middle of the lab and spun him around slowly.  
Jarvis played music overhead and DUM-E rolled around them beeping as they danced, both their hands rough and calloused and gentle with each other.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finally managed to include Jarvis and DUM-E!!! I love them.


	9. Downhill Fast

### 

The rest of the pack came over at 11 the next day and Tony greeted each of them happily at the door like an over excited puppy. Bruce was the first to arrive, and James got why Tony liked him. He was an understated man with an air of quiet strength. Shy until someone tried to mess with him. Then the teeth came out. The woman who arrived next seemed even more dangerous than Bruce. She introduced herself as Natasha Romanoff, and claimed to work in legal. If she worked in legal then his name was Jonathan Roads and he had never touched a gun a day in his life. Steve, Sam, and Clint all arrived together in a cop car, making excuses for Thor and Bucky who had to be on duty at the station.  
James leaned in to whisper to Tony. “This is proving my theory that all cops are werewolves.”  
Tony rolled his eyes and went to the kitchen to bring out snacks. The wolves all lounged around Tony’s table and Steve showed Natasha something on his phone. She sighed and handed him five dollars. James raised an eyebrow and she explained. “I have a bet going with Steve on how long it’s going to take Tony to realize that Steve knows what ‘lol’ means. It’s been months. I’m out almost a hundred bucks.”  
Steve tucked the cash into his wallet. “I’m sneaky. Bucky hasn’t clued in yet either.” 

Tony came back into the room carrying a bowl of dip to go with the chips that were already on the table. “You guys want anything else?”  
They all shook their heads.  
“Steve, I have something for you." He grabbed the pamphlets off the table and handed them to him.  
“Oh, Thank you. I appreciate it. Your text was very nice too.”  
“Of course. Lots of love.”  
“Lots of love,” Steve agreed, and there was a thump as Natasha kicked him under the table. 

James’ phone rang and he picked it up.  
“Rhodes.”  
“Jimmy it’s Jean, come to the compound.”  
He stood up and started walking towards the garage. “Why? What’s happened?”  
“Don’t bring Tony.”  
The phone hung up with a click. That wasn’t good. Tony touched his arm. “Is something wrong?”  
“Jean called. She wanted me to go back to the compound alone.”  
“You want me to come?” 

He hesitated, frowning down at his phone. If Tony came then the party was over and he knew Tony had been looking forward to it. And Jeanette had specifically said not to bring Tony. Maybe she wanted to have a heart to heart about hunting and their father and didn’t want an audience.  
Or maybe she was being an idiot and trying to break their dad out.  
“You better come. And bring Steve too.” 

They grabbed Steve and left the rest of the group to hang out in the kitchen, promising to be back soon, and got into Tony’s car. It was a quick drive to the compound and James got out first and walked to the door. He knocked and Jeanette let him in, glancing around suspiciously.  
“You didn’t bring Tony?”  
“Nope,” he said as the wolves went in through the back door. They would stay out of the way, and if all Jeanette wanted to do was talk then they would stay in one of the empty rooms and she would never know that they were there. She led him down the hall to the room where their father was trapped. She rapped on the glass and their dad sat up.  
“Jean?”  
“I’ve walked the whole compound, all the wolves are gone. We’re going to get you out of there before they get back.”  
James sighed. For once he would like to be wrong. “We’re not letting him out. Jean, he’s still feral. He’ll hurt someone.”  
“They said he was fine, and besides, he’s our dad! We’ll get him out and we’ll call in every favor we have until we can find a cure.”  
Their dad slammed his palms on the door. “Don’t let me out, I’ll go wild and kill you both.” Despite his words, he looked pretty human.  
“Dad!” Jeanette said desperately. “You have to fight it! Fight the monster inside you!”  
“It’s uncontrollable! Shoot me.” 

James breathed out heavily from his nose. He grabbed Jeanette and pulled her away from the door. “See, he doesn’t want to come out. Can we leave now?”  
Jeanette shook her head, upset. “We need to find a way to help him.”  
James threw out his arms. “The wolves are going to help him, that’s why he’s here.”  
“The monsters don’t care about helping him, if it were up to them he would stay stuck as a werewolf forever.”  
“He is going to stay stuck as a werewolf forever. Jean, I’m not trying to be mean, but in all of our years of hunting have we ever found a cure for anything?”  
Jeanette looked away. James put a hand on her shoulder. “No. We drive around and shoot anything that looks like it might eat people. We’re not scientists with degrees and unlimited funding and access to a lab.”  
Jeanette pushed him away. “So we give up on him? All you ever do is give up on our family. Tony’s got you back in his claws and I’m not going to be able to get you loose a second time.”  
“Jean-”  
“It’s fine, I don’t need your help. I’ll save Dad on my own.” She pulled out her gun and shot the lock of the door. It swung open and their dad took a step forward. Somewhere inside the house two cell phones went off.  
James held his arm out. “Jean, get behind me.”  
She pushed past him. “He’s our dad, he can’t be a monster.” 

Poor loyal Jeanette. Their dad had been a monster long before he got the excuse of being bit.  
Their dad grabbed her by the throat and pinned her to the wall. Fur erupted from his arms and his mouth filled with fangs. She struggled and he hit her across the face, splitting her lip.  
“Idiot child, is your head filled with cotton? I told you to leave me in there!”  
“I’m saving you!’ Jeanette choked out. James punched him in the head and their dad snarled. He knocked James into the wall with a single swipe of his hand. He turned back to Jeanette and snarled in her face, flecking her with spit.  
“You want to save me? Then take that gun of yours and shoot me.”  
Jeanette squeezed her eyes shut. “Dad, I love you, please let me help you.” 

The wolves rushed into the hall, Steve holding up his gun. “Drop her.”  
“I’ll never join your pack of devil beasts!” Their dad growled at them and charged forward. Steve pulled the trigger and their dad dodged out of the way and ran past him and out the front door. Steve gave chase and Tony crouched down next to James and Jeanette.  
Jeanette let out a pained cry and buried her face in Jame’s shirt.  
“Shit, she’s transforming.” Tony said in a panic. “Get her into the room.”  
“He didn’t bite her,” James said, still holding Jeanette protectively to his chest. Tony rubbed a thumb across her split lip. “Doesn’t need to be a bite. It’s if our spit gets in your blood. She’s starting to smell like wolf.”  
Jeanette shuddered in his arms and he felt her limbs twist unnaturally. “James!” she begged. “It hurts!”  
“Hang on Jean, it’s going to be ok,” James said, trying to comfort her as her bones bent and snapped. She let out a howl and completed the change, contorting into a thin brown wolf. Tony immediately shifted and wiggled out of his clothes. He stood between James and Jeanette as she panted roughly. She was larger than Tony with darker fur and James didn’t know how much of his sister was trapped behind those gleaming yellow eyes. He cautiously reached out a hand and pulled it back as she snapped at him. Tony snapped at her and she whimpered. The rest of the wolves came back into the hall. With backup there, Tony padded over to James, shifting back to human form, pulling on his pants, and tugging him down the hall and away from Jeanette. Behind him he heard the familiar hiss of a dart gun. James was in too much shock to fight him. 

Tony brought him back to the room they had retreated to the last time, back when his father was still alive and Jeanette a full blooded human. James shut the door and leaned against it, both hands pressed over his face.  
“I was supposed to protect her.”  
“It’s wasn’t your fault.” Tony pulled his hands down from his face and held them. “She’ll be alright. Give her a few days to get all the feral out and she’ll be her normal self. A slightly more wolfy version of her normal self. And Steve will find your dad too. It’ll be ok.”  
“It’s not ok! She’s not going to be able to live with this any more than my dad could! Her life as she’s known it is over.”  
“Hey, being a wolf is a good thing.”  
James pushed Tony away. “No, it’s not! You’re not getting this! She’s killed wolves! We’ve both killed wolves! A wolf was the first monster either of us ever shot! She killed it because she believed her entire heart that it was the right thing to do. And now she’s a wolf!”  
Tony took a step back. “You’ve killed wolves?”  
“You knew I was a hunter, what the hell did you think that meant!”  
“Ghosts and chupacabra. Ghouls. Hell Hounds. Things that can’t think! Things that feed off innocent people! Was the whole reason you came to Malibu to kill a werewolf?”  
James looked at the floor.  
“Rhodey?”  
“There were five reported deaths-”  
“Jesus. So since it ended up being your dad he deserved a second chance but if it had been any other person you would have shot them? Am I just another monster to you? Are you going to start shooting me and my pack next?”  
“Tony-”  
“No, I’m going home. I never want to see you again.”  
Tony pushed past him and slammed the door, leaving him alone in the room. He collapsed on the bed and put his head in his hands.  
It couldn’t possibly get worse from here.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> They talk about killing the wolf a few times in the story, most notably at the beach, but Tony is always out of the room or down by the ocean or at home. This was news to him.


	10. The First Hunt

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Heads up, this chapter has some gun violence and also children in unsafe situations, its not gory but please skip it if that makes you uncomfortable because it is just a flash back and you will still be able to follow the plot without it

### 

Jean and James crowded around their father as he sat at a beat up table jammed into the corner of the motel. He had his book of past cases out, and was comparing it to a pile of clippings he had taken from the local paper. The kids were both eager to help, leaning over his shoulder and pointing out what monsters it could be. Nothing was matching. Their dad leaned back in his chair.  
“Looks like we found a new type of beastie, little ones.”  
“I’m not little!” They both shouted immediately.  
“I’m eight, that’s old enough to ride a bike with no training wheels and walk to school alone and stay up all the way until ten o’clock!” Jeanette insisted.  
“And I’m a whole year older than her!” James chimed in. “We’re not little.” 

Their dad held his hands up. “Alright, not so little then. You two are growing up so fast, I look away and when I look back next you’re a full foot taller.”  
He pinched Jeanette’s cheek and she giggled. Their dad rested his arms on his legs and leaned forward. “I think it’s about time the two of you got go on your first hunt. How’s that sound?”  
“Wow Dad, you really mean it?” James asked incredulously. Normally they had to stay in the stupid boring motel room where there was nothing to do and everything smelled like mold while their dad got to go out and be a hero and stop monsters. Both James and Jeanette had been begging to go with him for as long as they could talk. They could both shoot the cans off the fence even if they stood so far away they could hardly see it and they studied the list of monsters every night just like their dad asked. It left less time to study for school, but who cared about that? They would move in a week anyways so they never had to turn in any stupid homework. All of the other kids were jealous. They had to do stupid math and reading every day, and their dads weren’t heroes, they did boring things like working at a bank. Only James' dad was smart and tough and cool. 

“Yes yes yes! I want to hunt! I want to hunt!” Jeanette squealed.  
“Me too!”  
“Alright, go put your gear on. I think I know where this monster is hiding and we’ll go take care of business.” 

James and Jeanette rushed to their bags and pulled on their black pants and thick black coats. Their dad said it would protect them from monster's claws. They both slung their rifles over their shoulders and raced each other to the car. Their dad followed behind them, and tossed all of their bags in the trunk.  
“I want to sit in the front seat!” Jeanette said.  
“You got it last time, it’s my turn!” James insisted.  
“James is right, it’s his turn to sit up front. No more fighting or else I’ll go hunting without you.”  
They both shut up immediately, though James twisted around in his seat to stick his tongue out at Jean. Their father started up the car and drove out of the lot. It was a small town and it was less than fifteen minutes before they were rolling down a dirt road through the woods. They both looked through the windows nervously, hoping the monster wasn’t going to jump out and get them. Their father pulled the car to a stop in the road. 

“There’s an abandoned cabin a quarter mile from here, and all of the attacks form a circle around the area. That’s most likely going to be where we find out monster. I’m going to go in to scout the situation, and try to lure it out. I want you two to climb this tree and wait. If you see the monster, shoot it. Got it?”  
“Got it!” they both said. James gave Jeanette a boost and they pulled themselves into the tree to wait. Their father stepped off the road and crept through the trees towards the abandoned cabin.  
Jeanette and James watched nervously as he circled around the building, and disappeared. Jeanette grabbed his arm.  
“Do you think he’s ok?” 

As the oldest it was James’ job to watch out for her. So even though he was scared himself, he said “Of course he’s ok! Dad is the toughest guy ever. Now shush, we don’t want the monster to hear us.”  
Jeanette nodded and they both waited quietly. Their dad came out of the front door of the cabin and walked down the road to them shaking his head.  
“It wasn’t there. Let’s drive down the road and see if we can find any other spots it might be hiding out.” 

He helped the kids down from the tree and they got back in the car. Their dad drove slowly with the lights off, and all three searched for any sign of a monster. In the distance there was a howl. James and Jeanette both trembled in their seats.  
“That’s gotta be it,” their dad said, and sped up. “Sounds like a wolf. The other hunters I’ve met have had lots to say about wolves, but this will be a new one for my book.” Their car bumped and bounced on the dirt road and they almost skidded off the road in the dark. Their dad pulled the car to a screeching halt and got holding his gun. Jeanette and James followed right behind him, their own guns at the ready. They ran through the trees and broke into a clearing, where a tent was ripped to shreds and a large wolf crouched over an unconscious woman. A man tried to hit the wolf with a tree branch and the wolf pounced on him, biting his arm and forcing him to the ground. Their father held up his gun and fired, hitting the wolf in the shoulder in a spray of blood. The wolf howled in pain and charged at them. Jeanette screamed and their dad shot two more times, hitting it right in the eye. The wolf was dead before it skidded to a stop on the rocky ground. Jeanette hid her face in James’ shoulder as their dad walked forward to inspect the two campers.  
“James!” Jeanette whimpered.  
He pet her hair. “It’s ok, Dad’s got it, you’re ok.” 

Their dad waved them over and James stepped forward. Jeanette crossed her arms and shook her head. Their dad let her be for the moment, and pulled James over to the body. “Look, right there on his arm. He’s been bit. That big guy I shoot? Werewolf. And anyone it bites turns into a werewolf too. You can see him changing.”  
The man writhed and screamed. “Help me! Please!”  
“How we gonna help him?” James asked in a panic. The man’s skin was erupting with fur, and his arms twisted sickeningly into pawed legs.  
“It’s too late for him. You gotta shoot him.”  
James looked up at his father with wide eyes. “....shoot him? He’s a person, not a monster!”  
“He’s turning into one.”  
The man let out another anguished scream and James’ dad put a hand on his shoulder. “It’ll be a mercy, son. And it’ll keep him from hurting anyone else. You said you’re not little, right? Now’s your chance to prove it. Do the right thing. Be a man. Be a hero. Shoot him.”  
“Dad-”  
His Dad grabbed his shoulder so hard James' arm started to go numb. “Now, James. Or else I’ll shoot it then leave you here with the other wolf.” 

James raised his gun with trembling hands. This wasn’t at all like shooting cans. It was dark, and the man was so close James could see the whites of his eyes. He let out a howl as he finished his shift. A wolf lied on the ground, panting. Yellow eyes looked up at James and the wolf took a step forward. Its long sharp claws clicked on the rock. It opened its mouth and snarled, spit dripping. It slid into a crouch, ready to pounce. It was going to kill him, then Jeanette next. James closed his eyes and pulled the trigger. The shot echoed through the clearing and the wolf fell over with a soft sigh. His father clapped him on the back. “There’s my boy. I’m proud of you, son.”  
James felt like throwing up. “Yeah?” he choked out. His dad nodded.  
“Very proud. Now it’s Jean’s turn.” 

While James had been focused on the man, the woman had shifted as well. She stepped forward and their dad shot her in the leg. She fell to the ground with a howl. Their dad walked over to Jeanette and guided her up to the wolf. Jeanette was crying and covering her face with her hands. James realized that he was crying too. Their dad took Jeanette’s gun off her back and put it in her hands.  
“Shoot it, Jean.”  
“No!”  
“Shoot it, Jean!”  
She sniffled and pointed the gun. Her aim was all over the place, the barrel waving wildly. She had painted a circle of pink around the end with nail polish, and covered it in puppy stickers. She said it was good luck so she never missed.... though she was a year younger, she had been even better at shooting the cans off the fence than James.  
She pulled the trigger and the wolf yelped and stopped moving. 

Their dad lead them back to the car. “Jean’s turn in the front,” he said cheerily, like it was just another day. For him, it was.  
She pulled herself into the car wordlessly. James got in the back without a fight.  
“You kids did a great job. It may not feel like it, but you did a good thing here today.”  
“I want to go back to the motel.” James said quietly. He wished he had never left, even if that meant still being a baby. Their dad shook his head.  
“No point. Monster is dead, our bags are already in the trunk. It’s time to move on. Buckle up kiddos, the work never ends.”  
Their dad said that a lot over the coming years. They’d shoot a djinn and be on the road the next day. “The work never ends,” their dad would say as he loaded up the car, still covered in blue blood. They’d burn the bones to kill a ghost and their dad would grab the shovel and be out of there before the bones were fully ash. When James broke his arm being thrown into a wall by a skinwalker, he fought on with a cast. When Jeanette was too sick to stand she was bait for a banshee.  
“Work never ends,” their father would say. It was like a mantra. Work never ended, always another case to solve, always another monster to kill, on and on, forever. There was no endpoint, no way out, no relief, no rest.  
Follow Dad, protect Jeanette, kill monsters, repeat.   
The work never ends.


	11. Final Fight

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Heads up, more violence in this chapter. It is not gory or descriptive in my opinion.   
Also, I highly recommend googling pictures of great Pyrenees, they are so cute it's unreal. I googled "fluffiest dogs" and that's how I decided what Tony would look like in wolf form...

### 

Tony spent most of his time in human form. His thought process was that it was amazing to be able to play video games and build robots and eat pizza and chocolate and there weren’t half as many benefits to being a wolf. He mostly retreated to wolf form when he was cold or nervous.  
After realizing that Tony was a werewolf James had a million questions.  
“How’d you get turned?”  
“I was born this way. Born wolves tend to look more like dogs, wild turned look more wolf like. My mom was born a wolf too, and she turned my dad a few years before I was born.”  
“On purpose?”  
“He wanted to be a wolf, who wouldn’t?”  
James could think of a few names but he didn't say anything. “Do you have to turn on the full moon?”  
Tony shrugged. “Feels weird and kinda painful if I don’t. Like I sat on my legs and they fell asleep. I’d feel the same way if I tried to stay in wolf form on a new moon. Everything needs to be in balance.”  
“Can you shift anytime?”  
“Sure.” To prove his point Tony pulled off his shirt and shifted, his bones twisting and fur sprouting to reveal a fluffy brown wolf. He wagged his tail cheerfully and James jerked back.  
Monster monster monster, his mind screamed. Kill it, before it kills you.  
“Don’t do that!”  
Tony immediately changed back and stood up on two feet. “Sorry. Not a dog person? I won’t hurt you, I promise.”  
James shuddered. “Don’t do that again.”  
Tony crossed his arms and hunched his shoulders. “Alright. Sorry. It’s fine, I always had to hide my wolf at boarding school, I can keep going for a few more years.” 

Tony stayed human around James for the next two weeks, only shifting when he knew he was in class. James came back early and found Tony curled up on his bed, small black nose tucked under a fluffy tail. He hesitated in the doorway, his hand unconsciously patting his side for a gun. What Tony had lied and he was out of control when he was a wolf? What if a different wolf had gotten in and killed Tony and was now sleeping in his bed? What if Tony spooked and lashed out? Wolves were monsters, anything could happen.  
“Tony,” he said, knowing logically that it was his friend who wouldn’t hurt him and still scared out of his wits that he was going to have to fight for his life.  
Tony’s head jerked up, his ears perked forward. He shifted back to human and James relaxed.  
“Rhodey! Welcome back. Sorry, I thought I had another half hour.”  
“I got out early.” He walked into the room and dumped his bag on his desk. He sat down on his chair and pulled his shoes off as Tony watched him, a hand dangling off the side of his bed.  
“I scared you.”  
“You didn’t.”  
“I’m not feral, you know. I’m the same person when I’m a wolf.”  
He put his papers on his desk and closed the drawer roughly. “You’re not the same person, you’re a wolf.”  
“Different body. Same mind. It’s a part of me.” Tony’s hand lengthened and his nails turned to claws, before shifting back into a normal hand.  
“Don’t do it around me. I don’t like it.”  
“Fine.” Tony turned his back to him in a clear pout. James frowned.  
“I’m not saying that I don’t like you.”  
“No, you’re just saying that you don’t like half of me.” Tony said viciously. Then his voice softened. “I’ve been hiding my whole life, I was hoping that college would be different.”  
James was silent, things rearrange themselves in his mind to make a new picture.  
Tony huffed and picked at the edges of his blankets. “Ignore me, I’m being selfish.”  
“It’s not selfish to want to be yourself.”  
“Nobody likes me the way I am. Not you, not my dad. They only like me when I’m useful. You’re happy to get my help on the calculus homework but if I try to sleep in my own bed as a wolf when you’re not supposed to be here? Then I need to change.” Tony pushed himself out of his bed and pulled on pants and a hoodie. “I’m going out.”  
“Tony, wait. I’m sorry.” He reached out to grab Tony’s arm and hesitated at the last second.  
Tony stepped away. “God, you can’t even touch me, I scare you that much.” He rubbed his face and left his fingers pressed to his temples. “You were the first human I trusted enough to see me like this, and look well it’s turned out. My dad was right, I can’t let anyone ever see my wolf. This was a terrible idea. I’ll put in a request to switch dorms.”  
“You don’t have to do that.”  
James stepped forward and put a hand on Tony’s shoulder to prove that he could. Tony looked up at him. “I want you to feel safe. I got you that deadbolt then immediately told you that the monster was already inside the room.”  
“I’m not going to lie, it’s going to take me a while to adjust to you being a werewolf. But I want to try. Baby steps.”  
“Baby steps?”  
“Do just your hand again.”  
Tony obediently held out his hand and shifted his fingers into a paw. James watched his face. This was Tony, who put in the deadbolt for him and helped with homework and got him into Star Trek. He was trusted. He was safe. James cautiously reached out and ran a finger against the rough pad. He immediately pulled back, his hand clenched into a fist. “That’s all I can do today.”  
“You don’t want me to move out? I won’t be mad.”  
“No. You’re staying, and so is your wolf,” he insisted. Tony nodded, still unsure.  
“I’m going to go get dinner, you want to come?”  
“Go on, maybe I’ll catch up later.” 

Tony left, and James shut the door behind him and bolted it. He sunk to the floor and put his head in his hands. What the hell was he doing? His father and sister would kill him if they knew he was voluntarily living with a werewolf. But it was Tony. And he had looked so sad.  
James knew what it felt like to hide away parts of yourself, to lie to everyone about who you were and what you did, and it hurt bitterly. He didn’t want Tony to have to pretend. It didn’t matter if the wolf made him uncomfortable, he was going to suck it up and deal with it, for Tony’s sake. 

The next day he had Tony do the hand trick again. It went better than the first day, and he was able to stroke his hand up the smooth fur to where it thinned out into normal hair. The day after Tony shifted fully to a wolf and stayed on the other side of the room, facing towards the wall. After a few minutes he shifted back. Soon James was able to reach out his hand and touch the very end of his tail.  
By the end of the week James sat on Tony’s bed and Tony carefully put his head in his lap, eyes wide and ears back. James put a hand on his head and Tony’s tail thumped on the floor. James let his fingers drag through the soft fur and Tony closed his eyes in bliss.  
I could have killed you, James thought with an ocean of guilt. If we had met in another time, I could have snuffed out all of your joy and life and compassion with a single pull of the trigger and never looked back.  
Now they were living together and James was petting him. It felt surreal. It helped that Tony didn’t look very wolf like. He was smaller, and looked more like a brown great Pyrenees. Petting him was like touching a cloud, layers and layers of soft fluff.  
“Sweet puppy,” he cooed.  
Tony’s tailed stopped wagging and he whined.  
“Yes you are. Sweet baby puppy” He flopped Tony’s ears up and down. James had never wanted a dog so badly until this moment. “Sweet boy, good boy.” He pressed a kiss to the dog’s head.  
Tony immediately changed back, his face bright red. “I think that’s enough for today.”  
“I, uh, yeah. Sorry.” 

After that Tony switched freely between his forms. Sometimes James would get back to their room and find Tony in human form and they’d play video games or wander up to the rec room to see what everyone else was up to. Sometimes Tony would be furry and curled up on his bed and James would give him a gentle pet before he went to do his homework. He stopped thinking of him as the wolf and Tony, and he was always just Tony. Either way he took up too much of the sofa and stole James’ popcorn. James got to the point where he sometimes preferred Tony as a wolf. It was like having all the joys of a dog without dealing with training and poop. He liked that Tony would be calm and quiet, and he could stroke his soft fur. James liked to run to stay in shape and the only way Tony could keep up was as a wolf, so James got a new running buddy. It was campus rules that all dogs had to be on a leash and when James suggested it Tony’s face was absolutely priceless. James took a picture and set it to Tony’s contact, and that same picture stayed for the next six years of school and the year and a half that he was on the road. 

When he first left Tony would text him sometimes. What he was eating, where he was going. James never responded and after a while they tapered off. Better to have a clean separation than drag things out.  
Now that he was back, he had spent almost every moment with Tony, so they hadn’t had a need to text. After Jean got bit and they fought, James checked his phone a few times for a message from Tony. There was nothing, and it felt fitting, after Tony waited so long for a message from him. 

James spent the night in the same room they fought in, and was plagued with bad dreams. He stumbled over to the feral containment room the second he woke up the next morning. Jeanette was human, lying on the bed sleeping. Her throat was bruised up from where she had been pinned to the wall. He rested a hand on the glass door. The lock set in the door was still broken and a thick deadbolt had been installed instead.  
“Step away.”  
James turned and saw Steve.  
“She needs more time to calm down before she can have visitors. Anything could set her off and every episode puts her more days away from regaining her mind. Only Bruce gets to go in for now. He’ll make sure she has everything she needs.”  
James let his hand trail down the glass and fall away from the door. Steve clapped him on the shoulder. “Come on, let’s get some breakfast.”  
Steve led him to the kitchen and pushed him up a plate of eggs. James ate them mechanically, everything tasting like ashes in his mouth. Steve sat across from him. “Where has Tony gotten off to?”  
James kept his eyes on his eggs. “Haven’t seen him since yesterday, and he hasn’t called.”  
He could hear the frown in Steve’s voice. “I thought he was with you. No one has seen him since yesterday and he’s not picking up his phone. I’ll send someone out to his house to check on him.”  
James nodded and watched Steve leave the room. Tony was probably just sulking. With nothing better to do he headed back towards the room where Jeanette was. A man with mousy brown hair and glasses stepped outside the door, and slide the deadbolt shut behind him.  
“Hello Bruce.”  
“Hello James.”  
They had only talked briefly at Tony’s lunch the previous day and now that Bruce was the one taking care of his sister it was much more important to get to know him.  
“Would you prefer the title doctor?”  
Bruce gave him a tight lipped smile. “I do have a doctorate, and I am qualified for this, if that’s what you’re fishing for. Don’t worry about your sister, I’ve brought four wolves back from being feral, and been brought back myself. Your father has been our only failure and I’m sure I could have helped him if I had more time. I was able to get him to a fully human state, which has always been enough to cure someone in the past. Shame that he immediately regressed, I've never seen that happen before. Almost like he woke up, then chose to go back to acting feral. I’ll need to do more studying. The whole process typically takes less than a week, depending on how traumatic the turning was and how long they’ve been stuck in a feral or half feral state. I think your sister should be back to talking and walking on two feet in about three days.”  
“She doing ok right now?”  
“Still sleeping. It’s very hard for the brain to process the sensations of being a wolf after being human for its entire existence. Sleep helps. Here, I have some stuff for you.” Bruce lead him into the room next to the containment room and handed him a plastic bag. “Her things. We try to keep the containment room free of weapons and distractions.”  
James nodded and Bruce left him in peace to look through the bag. There was a lighter, and Jeanette’s handgun. He put the lighter in his pocket and the gun he tucked into the back of his pants. The final item in the bag was her phone. Her phone vibrated and he almost dropped it. Who was messaging her? He had seen her unlock it enough times to copy the password, and he noticed that there was a missed call and two messages. He clicked on the phone icon. One missed call from a contact simply titled “Dad”, received half an hour ago. After all this time, after a year and a half of watching Jeanette check her phone every half hour, jumping at phantom vibrations and other people’s ringtones, their dad had finally called. And Jeanette had missed it. He wanted to cry. There was no voicemail so he switched over to the messaging app. Two new messages from their dad. He opened the chat and dropped the phone. He covered his mouth and took a step back.  
“No, no, no,” he whispered to himself, picking the phone back up. There was a short message, saying “Let Jean loose or the mutt gets it” and underneath was a picture of Tony. He was tied to a chair with what looked like electrical wire, and his face was a bloody mess. The worst was the look in his eyes. Complete and total terror. 

He ran into the hall and to the kitchen where Steve and Bruce were talking with Bucky. James held up his phone.  
“My father took Tony.”  
They immediately crowded around him and looked at the photo. Steve growled and Bruce had to excuse himself. Steve stalked outside and Bucky and James followed him.  
“To tie knots like that he’d need hands. He’s not stuck in a feral wolf state, he’s doing this as a human. The rest of the pack is already at Tony’s, Jarvis will be able to pull a location from this phone and we’ll go rip the bastard to shreds.” 

They all got into the car and Steve started the engine and flipped on the sirens. James took back everything he ever said about Jeanette’s driving. She was a fucking model citizen compared to this. The captain had no respect for the laws of the road or of physics and barreled them along the side of a cliff with the speedometer breaking 110. They all tumbled out of the car at Tony's house and rushed inside. They went down to the basement and James plugged the phone into the computer as Steve explained what was happening to Jarvis and the rest of the pack. The wall lit up with a map as Jarvis narrowed down the source of the signal. A glowing red circle appeared around a field a mile out of town. That was all they needed, and they were off again.  
They pulled up to the field and got out of the cars. Each pack member shifted into a wolf, and they slunk through the grass to a broken down barn in the middle of the field. James followed behind Natasha’s sleek red form as they circled around to underneath a window. There were several sets of voices arguing inside and James listened closely.  
“If you know where they are, I say we go in and kill them now!”  
“The place could be fortified, we should lure them out here. We already have bait.”  
There was a sharp smack and James heard Tony cry out in pain. He stood up and Natasha grabbed his shirt in her teeth to force him back down. Inside the voices continued their conversation.  
“How many are there?”  
“I’ve told you, I don’t know! I gave you the location of a whole den of werewolves and that’s not good enough for you? All we gotta do is go in there and burn it to the ground! We’re hunters, this is what we were born to do!”  
James recognized his father’s voice. Steve must have recognized it to, because there was a loud howl from the other side of the building and Natasha lept through the window in a spray of broken glass. James hoisted himself up and through a second behind her. Inside the barn was pure chaos as hunters reached for their guns and wolves burst in from all sides, biting and snarling. James scanned the room until he found Tony, tied up in the back corner. He weaved through the hunters and wolves until he got to Tony, and he started pulling frantically at the knots.  
“Rhodey!”  
“I’m going to get you out, do you see a knife anywhere?”  
“Rhodey behind you!”  
James froze and looked over his shoulder. His father was pointing a gun at him and frowning. James was pulled back to the time when he was chained to the radiator so many years ago to wait and see if he was a monster.  
He looked into his father’s eyes and there was nothing there. No love, no mercy. Not even any yellow that meant wolf. Simply a hunter watching his prey.  
“Move, boy, or I’ll shoot you too.”  
This time he wasn’t the target tied up for his father’s inspection, it was Tony. James stood in front of him. “Drop your gun.”  
“Don’t make this harder than it needs to be. He’s a monster, and he needs to be put down before he can hurt anyone else.”  
James looked around the room at the wolves limping from gunshot wounds and the hunters lying bitten and bleeding on the ground.  
“Tony’s not the reason people are getting hurt. Put down the gun, we can work this out. The wolves are good people. I know you don’t want to admit that, because then you’d have killed people who you shouldn't have killed and the guilt is a heavy weight to bear. It hurts me every day, the things I did when I didn’t know any better. But I changed, and you can too, and so can Jeanette. You just have to make the choice.” James held out his hand and stepped forward. “Please Dad.”  
His dad lowered his gun. “I can tell you meant every word of that.”  
“Yes! We can work this out, we can-”  
His dad raised his gun and shot him through the stomach. James fell back, his ass hitting the floor and his head hitting Tony’s leg where it was tied to the chair. Tony started thrashing and his wrists bled as he tried to shift and was held in place by the wire. James’ father stepped closer.  
“The werewolves have poisoned your mind. I knew you were weak willed since you ran off to play at being in school. Ended up being for the best… you’re nowhere near good enough to be a hunter.” He raised his gun again and pressed the barrel to Tony’s forehead. James felt the world spin as he pulled Jeanette’s gun from his pants and flipped off the safety. He kicked his leg out as his dad pulled the trigger and his shot went high, scorching the tips of Tony’s hair.  
His dad looked down and saw James’ gun. His eyes went wide, the predatory glint fading as the hunter became the prey. James pulled the trigger.  
The sound seemed unnaturally loud in the confines of the barn, and all eyes were on James’ father as he slowly fell to the ground.  
James let the gun clatter to the floor and he pressed his hands over his bleeding stomach. The werewolves finished with the last of the hunters, and Bucky grabbed a knife from the floor to cut Tony free. The second he was loose, he dropped to the ground to hold James. Tony was warm as always and softer than the floor and James leaned into him. He felt his eyes fall shut and that was the last he remembered.


	12. Return

### 

Boxes filled the kitchen of their small apartment and James was amazed that they had managed to accumulate this much stuff. Even if it had still been daytime the boxes went so high they would have blocked out all the light from their little kitchen window. 

“Did we get everything?” Tony called from the other room.  
James finished labeling the last box and leaned back in his chair at the table. “I hope so. I think the boxes are multiplying like tribbles. If we add any more we’re going to be over run.”  
Tony walked into the kitchen and sat on his lap. “Star Trek reference? I think that deserves a kiss.”  
James accepted the kiss happily and ran his hand under the edge of Tony’s t-shirt. “I thought of one thing we didn’t pack.”  
Tony leaned back into the touch. “Yeah? What’s that?”  
“The blankets and sheets.”  
He squinted at him. “I can’t tell if you’re propositioning me or actually reminding me to grab the blankets tomorrow.”  
James wrapped Tony in his arms and stood up. Tony yelped and James pressed a kiss to his forehead. “Maybe it’s both. Maybe I’m multitasking.” 

He walked to their room, doing a little spin whenever Tony tried to escape so he was forced to hang on to James’ shoulders for dear life.  
“You are the worst! I hate everything about you!”  
James tossed him on the bed and flipped on the lights. He pulled off his shoes and sat down too. “You hate everything about me, huh?” 

Tony wrapped the sheet around him to trap his arms and pushed him over. Tony sat on James’ legs and crossed his arms. “That’s right. And now you’re my prisoners so you have to listen to the whole list.”  
James freed his hands from the sheet and covered his face. “Oh no, my delicate feelings, my only weakness.”  
Tony laughed. “That’s right. Now listen up. I hate your face. It’s too handsome. It should be illegal.”  
“Alright. Maybe people in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones, huh?”  
Tony hit him with a pillow. “Shut up, prisoners are not allowed to speak.”  
“I think-”  
Tony covered his face with the pillow and James grabbed it away and put it under his head. Tony pouted.  
“That’s the next thing I hate. You’re too strong. Your arms look like you could bench press me and it makes the other people at school feel inadequate. They’re delicate, Rhodey, why aren’t you more considerate of them and their little noodle arms?”  
“I’ll wear sweaters and baggy hoodies from this day on.”  
“Good.”  
“But now what am I supposed to do with all the tickets?”  
“What tickets?”  
“The tickets to the gun show.” He started flexing his arms. Tony snorted and pinned his wrists down.  
“The gun shows was cancelled. It rained.”  
Thunder boomed outside as if to emphasis Tony’s point. James shook his head. “Darn Massachusetts weather. This is why we’re moving to California.”  
Tony smiled. “One more day.”  
James smiled back. “One more day.” 

By this time tomorrow they were going to be in Malibu in the house that Tony had picked. Since he was paying for almost all of it and James had gotten to pick out their apartment, he had left the house hunting to Tony. The spot he picked was over the top, something that looked like a vacation home. James didn’t think he deserved anything half as nice as that house but Tony had his heart set on it and an almost unlimited budget so James had agreed. Now he couldn’t wait to get inside. He and Tony had been planning what they wanted their home to look like for years and he was so excited to get started.  
He pulled Tony into a kiss. “We’re so close.”  
Tony hummed his agreement and kissed him again. “That’s the last thing on my list of things I hate. Your kisses are addictive, they should be banned for health and safety reasons.”  
James laughed and puckered up his lips. Tony covered his mouth with his hand. “Addictive. You’re dangerous.”  
James licked Tony’s hand and he immediately let go and started wiping it off on his shirt.  
“I’ll show you danger-” James was interrupted by the doorbell.  
Tony growled and flopped face first into the bed. “Don’t get it. I don’t want to talk to the Mormons again.”  
“It’s almost midnight, why would someone be ringing the bell?”  
“Because they hate me personally. Don’t get it, maybe they’ll give up and go away.”  
The doorbell rang three times in quick succession. Tony covered his head with a pillow. “Fuck.”  
James rolled out of bed and grabbed his coat from the closet. “It’s fine, I’ll get it.” 

He shoved his feet back into his shoes and undid the deadbolt and unlocked the front door and re-locked it behind him. It was important to keep Tony safe. He walked up the stairs and down the hall to the front door of the building where a figure was standing with their finger pressed the buzzer for their apartment. Tony was probably having a conniption over the sound downstairs. James unlocked the front door and the figure stepped into the light.  
“Jean?” he asked, his eyes wide. She looked different than what he remembered, much older and worn down.  
“Jimmy. I have a problem.”  
She stepped forward and he stepped back to let her in, still mostly in shock.  
“It’s been six years.” His mind tried to process what she was doing here. Had she come for his graduation? No, she said there was a problem. She walked down the hall.  
“Can we talk inside? Which of these is yours?” She put a hand on her hip and the movement pushed her coat aside so that he could see she was carrying a gun.  
James’ blood ran cold. If she found out that Tony was a werewolf she would kill him without a second of hesitation. He tried to remember if they had anything at the apartment that might give it away. Tony’s dog mug? The squeaky bone he had bought as a joke and Tony had unironically liked? Tony himself? He couldn’t risk it.  
He crossed his arms over his chest. “Let’s talk here. Why have you come back?”  
She sighed and leaned against the wall, clearly exhausted. “Dad and I split up a few months ago so I could handle a quick haunting while he tracked down a werewolf in Nevada. I went to meet up with him once I was done, but he wasn’t at the rendezvous. I called him and he never picked up. I thought he might be busy and gave him some time, and he never came back. I’ve spent the last month searching and I can’t find anything.” She stepped forward and grabbed his arm. “You gotta help me Jimmy, I’m getting really worried. Two months is the longest I’ve ever been apart from Dad and he could be in serious trouble.”  
James felt old protective instincts rush to the surface. Jean was out hunting, alone? That was a death sentence for hunters. Any less than two meant that if the monster got the drop on you it was all over. And all of their best strategies involved having back up. They had a saying in the business; A lone hunter was a dead hunter. If Jean walked out that door alone, she was dead meat.  
Under all the scars and dust and passed years James could still see the scared eyes of his baby sister.  
James closed his eyes and sighed. “I’ll help you.”  
Jeanette clapped him on the shoulder. “I knew I could count on you! You’ve always been watching out for me. You have anything you need to pack?”  
“I’m already packed.”  
“Oh, this worked out perfectly then. Grab your stuff and meet me at the car.”  
And as quickly as she came in she was gone. 

Worked out perfectly. Right. James went back downstairs and unlocked the door. Tony was still in bed and he flopped an arm out when James stepped into the room.  
“Thank god you’re back, I was starting to think that the Mormons had kidnapped you. Get back in bed, I’ve thought of more things I hate.”  
James stayed in the doorway. “Tony, I have to go.”  
“Then go. Did we pack the toilet paper up or something?”  
“Tony.”  
At the tone of his voice Tony sat up. “Rhodey?” 

He looked so vulnerable, in his pajamas and wrapped in blankets, sitting alone in their bed. He didn’t look like a werewolf. Even when he was a wolf he didn’t look like a werewolf. More like a great Pyrenees had gotten frisky with real wolf and produced a ball of adorable brown fluff with an addiction to peanut butter treats.  
Jean would have still killed him. Before James went to MIT, he would have killed him too. He could have shot Tony as he begged for help and gone back to the car with a clear conscious.  
Tony deserved someone better than him. Someone without a million nervous tics who dead bolted the doors, someone who didn’t have hands that were dripping with red. Even now he was hiding Tony from his sister, because it had been too long since he had seen her and no longer knew if she might lash out before he could explain.  
“It was my sister Jeanette. Our father is missing and I have to help her find him.”  
“I don’t understand.”  
“I’m not coming with you to Malibu. I’m leaving with her tonight.”  
“When are you coming back?”  
James took a deep breath. 

“I’m not coming back.” 

Living with Tony had been a beautiful dream and it was time to go back to his responsibilities. Like his dad always said, the work never ended. Tony would be unhappy but he would survive without him. He was a survivor above all else, one of the many things James admired him for. Jeanette needed help immediately. 

Tony got out of bed and held his hands. “Right, not coming back here, because you’re going to meet me in Malibu. I’ll get everything all set up for us, it’ll be beautiful," he insisted. "Then the second you find your dad you can come and it’ll be just we like we talked about. With the walls like the sky and the beds like clouds and our model planes and the ocean and all the food we eat. I’ll have my pack and we’ll all eat hot dogs and build sand castles on the beach. You can bring your dad and sister too if you want, there’s lots of space. That’ll be our deal. The second you find him, you’ll call me, and then you’ll come home.” 

Tony looked so desperate and James remembered the sinking empty feeling he had gotten when Tony had tried to break up with him three years ago. James couldn’t bear to rip the last of his hope from him. Maybe he couldn’t bear to take that hope from himself either. There had to be a small chance, right? That he could find his dad and get to go home. He hugged Tony and buried his face in his hair. “Sure. That’s our deal.”  
“Promise?”  
“Promise.” 

He reluctantly pulled himself away and Tony watched him from the doorway as he grabbed the boxes of his clothes. He paused in front of a cardboard box neatly labeled “Iron Man”, and added it to his stack. He stopped in the doorway.  
“Goodbye, Tony.”  
“See you soon.” 

James walked outside, and the door shut behind him. He went outside and dumped his boxes in the trunk. He got in beside Jeanette.  
“Ready?”  
He wasn’t ready. He wanted to spend another six years living with Tony where he woke up every morning feeling safe and every day was a good day.  
“I’m ready. Let’s go.”  
Jean pulled the car out, and that was the last time he saw Tony for one and a half years.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> James took his shoes off before getting into bed because he always wears shoes inside because he grew up in motels. Tony also wears shoes inside because he grew up in boarding schools. Jarvis hates it when they visit and don’t take off their shoes but he’s too polite to say anything about it.


	13. The End

### 

James woke up slowly, everything overly loud and bright. He focused on the soft feeling of a thumb stroking up and down his hand. He blinked a few times and looked to the side where Tony was sitting. When he moved Tony sat up straight.  
“Rhodey?”  
“Hey Tones…”  
Tony let out a breathless laugh and his hand tightened on his before relaxing back into the rhythmic touch. “You were out for a full day. Making me worried, Honey Bear.”  
“Worrying all of us.” Jeanette said from her spot against the wall.  
“Jean? You’re out of the feral room?”  
She nodded. “Bruce cleared me an hour ago and I came straight here. I swear to God, you leave me behind for one case and immediately get shot. Dad would be ashamed.”  
Tony and James both winced. Jean would have to be told what happened eventually. Later. When the room wasn’t slowly spinning and sounds dull and ringing for James and Tony didn’t look worn thin, with thick bandages around his wrists where he had been tied up.  
“I’m glad you’re back, Jean.” James said. And he was. Despite the fact that their father was able to hurt Tony because she let him out, at her core she had only been trying to help, and she had suffered more than her fair share for it already.  
She looked down at her hands, where her nails shifted briefly into claws before shrinking into normal nails again. “Not all the way back. I was thinking about what you said, about how we go around shooting and don’t spend any time trying to fix things. I was talking with Bruce, and he’s working on a cure. He said that if I got a few years of college under my belt then I could help. I’m thinking about doing it.”  
“You should.” James agreed immediately.  
“I’ll help you pay,” Tony offered. “Just don’t go to Harvard. Our MIT hearts couldn’t bear it.”  
She gave him a half smile. James really hoped that now they would start to warm up to each other. If not, he had all the time in the world to convince them to get along, and wasn’t that a nice thought? He let his eyelids droop, and in the darkness and stillness of the hospital room they all got a chance to rest for the first time in a very long time. 

When James woke up again it was just Tony. He was sleeping in the chair, dark circles under his eyes. James watched him sleep, wondering where things stood between them. Tony blinked his eyes open blearily and stretched with a yawn. “Edward Cullen impression? Watching me sleep?”  
“I think in this scenario you’d be Jacob.”  
“Hmmm. I guess that's true.” Tony rubbed a hand through his hair and James watched him closely for any signs of pain.  
“You like what you see?” Tony said dryly, noticing his attention.  
“Always,” he admitted, unashamed. “But I didn’t expect you to stick around.”  
“Right. Break ups happened. Things were said. Things that I might regret,” Tony said, resting his head on his hand on the arm of the chair.  
James shook his head. “You were right about hunters. Look what they did to you.”  
He carefully brushed his finger against the edge of the thick bandage on Tony’s wrist. “I never should have killed wolves, and I won’t blame you if you walk out of this room right now.” He kept his eyes downcast as Tony pulled his arm away and crossed them over his chest, hiding the stripes of white under his arms.  
“I’m fine. Did you mean what you said? About the guilt, about the change?”  
“Every word,” James promised.  
“Then I’m staying,” Tony promised in return. His tone turned teasing. “We did have a deal after all, would hate to get a reputation as a man who goes back on his word.”  
“A deal’s a deal,” James agreed. “Better shake on it.”  
“If this is a dog joke…” Tony still reached out a hand and James latched onto it, pulling Tony close enough that he could wrap his other arm around him and press his face into Tony’s shirt.  
“God, Tones. You could have died.”  
“Me?? I’m not the one in the hospital bed.” Tony wrapped his arms around him, holding him tight. “Relax, breathe. We’re both safe, we made it.”  
“You almost died,” he repeated. “Tony-”  
“Shhh, it’s ok, here, look, I brought you a stuffed bear! He’s holding a heart, I couldn’t find “Get well soon” so it says “Happy Retirement”. That’s close, right?”  
James took the bear from Tony. “Happy retirement?”  
No more work to be done. No more monsters who needed to be killed. No more traveling, no more shitty motels, no more worrying, no more lies, no more missing Tony. No more hunting.  
Happy retirement.  
He kept his arms tight around Tony. “It’s perfect.” 

James was released from the hospital three days later, and Tony and Jeanette both hovered around him anxiously as he got into Jeanette’s car. For the first time in her life Jeanette followed the speed limit, and they pulled up to Tony’s house with no problem. She helped him out, and everyone outside yelled “Surprise!” 

The whole pack was there, camped out on the beach by Tony’s house, holding hot dogs and fresh cut watermelon. Jeanette helped James to a lawn chair a comfortable distance from the water and Tony handed him a hot dog. He sat down in the lawn chair beside him with a grin. James looked out at the people laughing and splashing in the water, and Jeanette crouched in the sand trying to build a castle with Bruce who looked like he was getting way too invested in it being architecturally sound. He looked over at Tony who was leaned back in his chair, eating his hot dog and eyeing a plate of watermelon.  
“We did it, Tones,” he said incredulously. After almost five years of planning through college, then another year and a half of daydreaming on the road, they had made it.  
“Sure did. A certain someone took forever about it, but we got here. Are you happy?”  
James took a deep breath. He could smell the ocean and hot dogs grilling. The sand was warm beneath his feet. The air was filled with the sounds of waves and laughter. The case of the feral wolf had been solved, Jeanette was out of the game, and Tony had forgiven him and found a pack and built them home.  
“I’m happy. I’m very, very happy.”  
James flipped the question. In all the years they had been together, he had never directly asked, “Are you happy?”  
Tony smiled at him. “I’m with you.”  
And that was all that needed to be said.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that’s the end! Thanks for reading!  
I’m not planning a sequel at the moment so if you want to read some more writing from me you can check out this story about Tony and Rhodey I set in canon:  
<https://archiveofourown.org/works/17465723>  
Or if you’re not picky about ships and are here for the wolves, I wrote a very different Steve/Tony werewolf story here:  
<https://archiveofourown.org/works/17477612>  
Hope you enjoyed! I drew some art so that's the last chapter.


	14. Chapter 14

Tony and Rhodey when they went to the shooting booth at the carnival 

[](https://photos.google.com/share/AF1QipOBdbePOxPN0bQkdDvFwYZqautB9-Wa6MFRbIBlUYLr4qfR-XtkDjSk1SMMlMH2Kg?key=ZWctc0Z0aWpoVkk3TkNWNXVxUzM4Wmw3ZkFKRnhB&source=ctrlq.org)


End file.
